Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Justice for the Forgotten and representatives of bereaved families to the Gallery and thank them for keeping this issue to the fore and being so tenacious in raising it over recent years. As other speakers have said, it is now 42 years since the horrendous bombings of Dublin and Monaghan in which 34 people died and 300 were injured. There were three bombs in Dublin and one in Monaghan about an hour and half later. A number of people from County Tipperary were killed in the bombings. In a previous bombing in December 1972, a Tipperary resident, George Bradshaw, who was a bus worker from Fethard, died.

One would wonder why over the past 42 years we have not been able to get to the truth and get justice and answers for those who were bereaved. It is now clearly and widely accepted that British state security forces were involved in the bombings. The evidence for that comes from the mouths of former members of the British security forces. The Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality indicated that it is believed that the bombs were an act of international terrorism involving British state forces. In his report Mr. Justice Barron criticised the Garda Síochána investigation and said it was stopped prematurely. He also criticised the Fine Gael and Labour Party Government of the day and said British security forces were, in his view, involved in the bombings.

Since then we have been unable to get co-operation from the British Government on this issue. We have sought files and papers to be made available, but that did not happen. The Government asked that an independent international judicial expert be allowed to view the relevant papers, but that has not happened. There were all-party motions in 2008, 2011 and again today.

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