Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I, too, welcome warmly to the House representatives of Justice for the Forgotten. On 17 May 1974, 50 years ago, co-ordinated bombings were carried out by loyalist paramilitaries. Three bombs in Dublin and a fourth in Monaghan shattered the lives of countless families. Thirty-four were killed and almost 300 injured. It happened during the Ulster Workers' Council strike called to oppose the Sunningdale Agreement. One of the bombs exploded in Talbot Street, a route to Connolly Station for Wexford people going home. I was in college in Dublin. More often than not, I would have taken that train. Somebody I knew very well, Siobhán Roice, a girl of my age from Wexford, did walk down that street that night and lost her life. It was timed for 5.30 p.m. to hit passengers heading for that train and others.

Prior to this horrific series of bombs in 1974, there were four previous paramilitary bombings in Dublin city centre. The first was at Burgh Quay on 26 November 1972. It was outside the wall of the Film Centre cinema at O'Connell Bridge House. That bomb injured 40 people, among them my sister Jackie and her husband Paddy. Both had very serious leg injuries, with part of a cinema seat embedded in Paddy's leg. I commend the perseverance and resilience of the Justice for the Forgotten group. My sister refers to the 1972 bombing as "The forgotten forgotten". I recall, as a schoolboy, visiting my sister and her husband in the Mater Hospital. It was surrounded at the time by armed gardaí because also in the hospital at the exact same time was Seán Mac Stíofáin, chief of staff of the Provisional IRA. He was on hunger strike. I remember the terror of trying to get through that phalanx because the night after the bombing, an eight-man IRA unit unsuccessfully tried to free Mac Stíofáin from the Mater and exchanged gunfire with members of An Garda Síochána.

The full truth behind each of these atrocities needs to be fully investigated with, for once, open and complete disclosure from British and Irish Governments and all their various security services. No one, as others said, has ever been arrested or charged with these attacks. The truth remains hidden. Despite our expressions of unanimity, after 50 years, we seem to be no closer to the truth. Today's motion recalls previous all-party motions. On this, the 50th anniversary, we repeat yet again the same basic point made three times previously, that access to the truth requires wholehearted co-operation between governments and security services throughout these islands. That is true not just of these atrocities but of all the killings and maimings that happened during what we call the Troubles. One major change since the Dáil last addressed these issues is the passing of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023. We all know that Act will do little or nothing to achieve its stated objectives. It is instead yet another obstacle to truth and reconciliation. Legacy issues remain the unfinished business of the Good Friday Agreement. It is somehow easier for Northern Ireland parties to devise institutions of government, as difficult as that has been, than to devise ways to address the past and its legacy of horror.

Little progress has been made on this matter. In fact, few real attempts have been made. Neither side was willing to see that the only way forward is compromise. The reason there is a need for compromise is that implicit in the Stormont House agreement is the recognition of a stark reality. Relying on traditional policing and justice approaches to these legacies is bound to fail, and many know that. However, there is no compromise on legacy. The British Government stepped in and unilaterally imposed its defined solution. Its approach is not impartial or even-handed. The British Government has its own constituency of army veterans and their families, and its legislation is designed to meet the needs of that constituency and its political objectives. The Act has no support in Northern Ireland and no support in the rest of Ireland. There is a basic need for people in Northern Ireland to consent to any process that is designed to address the past, that truly has the objective of reconciliation at its heart.

The British legislation, in truth, is not entirely bad. It will set up an independent commission for reconciliation and information recovery to review deaths and injuries caused by conduct forming part of the Troubles. It is encouraging that it does not matter if that event or conduct occurred in Northern Ireland, in another part of the United Kingdom or elsewhere. In theory, at least, while the Dublin and Monaghan bombings could be examined under that Act, the circumstances surrounding the high-handed enactment of this legislation and its imposition mean that it will not work or be worked. The truth is that it is not just the paramilitaries and Northern Ireland parties that have backed away from addressing these issues in a fundamental way. The policing and other security services in Britain and Ireland are also haunted by their own part in all of this. There is deep-seated political and institutional resistance to efforts to ensure that wrongs are fully and completely ventilated and that wrongdoers, from wherever they come, are identified. All the time the clock is ticking, and that has been the objective because delay defeats justice.

I welcome the commitment given to Colum Eastwood by the British Labour Party leader Keir Starmer that the legacy Act will be repealed by any incoming Labour government. Whoever is in government here must keep that new Labour government to that commitment and must work with it to restore the current toxic Anglo-Irish relationship in order that these bombings and other issues can be addressed and resolved. It will be far preferable to have the legacy Act dealt with politically by agreement between governments than by awaiting a judgment of the European court. I believe the Tánaiste would agree with that. Simple repeal of the legislation will be nowhere near enough. A return to the status quowill achieve nothing. In many, if not most, of the historic cases, evidence continues every day to degrade, memories continue to deteriorate and witnesses are dying. Simply leaving open the possibility of future criminal prosecutions is in many ways offering a false hope to the majority of victims, survivors and their families. Bear in mind the sheer number of cases that are still unsolved. Well over 3,500 people died during the Troubles and more than 47,000 people were injured. It has been estimated that one third of the people in Northern Ireland were directly or indirectly affected by political violence. Many others obviously suffered in Britain, in this part of the island and across Europe. Even with a limitless budget there is neither the policing resources nor capacity to carry out all these investigations.

We have a responsibility as political leaders to lead our supporters towards a mechanism that is both workable and principled. That is the only real and substantial hope we can offer the victims and families of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and to all of their communities, who still grieve in such a real and obvious fashion. Unless we make that commitment, all of our expressions of concern, however often we repeat them, remain mere verbiage.

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