The Fine Gael/Labour coalition government led by Mr Liam Cosgrave showed "little interest" in pursuing the perpetrators of the 1974 Dublin/Monaghan bombings, the Barron inquiry has concluded. Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, reports
The investigation into the bombings, which Mr Justice Henry Barron said "remain the most devastating attack on the civilian population of this State to have taken place since the Troubles began", is also heavily critical of the Garda investigation into the attacks.
The investigation, which was wound down without explanation in early 1975, "failed to make full use of the information it obtained", according to the 288-page Barron inquiry report, published last night.
However, the independent commission of inquiry chaired by Mr Justice Barron found that evidence does not exist to support charges that the Northern Ireland security authorities colluded with loyalist paramilitaries in the bombings, which killed 33 people, including a pregnant woman, on May 17th, 1974.
It says the loyalists involved in the Dublin bombing were "capable of doing so without help" from any security forces in the North, "though this does not rule out the involvement of individual RUC, UDR or British army members".
The report was published by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights. The committee will write to those named in the document to ask them to appear at public hearings in late January, although it cannot force them to do so.
The government, according to the inquiry, failed to pursue the British after the prime minister, Mr Harold Wilson, told the then Taoiseach Mr Cosgrave in November 1974 they had identified the bombers and interned them.
"Following the meetings, there is no evidence that the information was passed, either to the minister for justice, or any of his officials, or indeed the Garda commissioner." This "absence of apparent interest", said Mr Justice Barron, "strongly suggested that the government made no efforts to assist the investigation into the bombings at a political level".
Mr Justice Barron said: "It can be said that the Government of the day showed little interest in the bombings."
The report was welcomed by a group representing victims and survivors of the bombings. Mr Greg O'Neill, solicitor for Justice for the Forgotten, said it was "an immensely important stage in the struggle of families for truth and justice".
However, three families walked out of an earlier press conference held by the Joint Oireactas Committee to announce the findings.
Criticising the Garda, Mr Justice Barron said: "The Garda investigation failed to make full use of the information it obtained. Certain lines of inquiry that could have been pursued further in this jurisdiction were not pursued." Detectives failed to interview suspects in Northern Ireland with the RUC's co-operation, and to collect vital forensic evidence from the bombing scenes, the report says.
However, the inquiry found no evidence to back charges that the Garda investigation into the bombings was wound down because of cabinet interference.
The allegation was sharply rejected by the former Taoiseach, Mr Cosgrave and the former minister for justice Mr Paddy Cooney during their meetings with Mr Justice Barron.
The British army, the report said, foiled "a multiple cross-Border bombing attack in March, 1974 - two months before the attacks on Dublin and Monaghan, after it infiltrated loyalist paramilitaries.
"It does not seem believable that an attack on the scale of the Dublin bombings would be allowed to go ahead simply in order to protect an informant," said the retired High Court judge.
Mr Justice Barron criticised the lack of co-operation by the British government, which refused to make original documents available to the inquiry. Following a trawl of 68,000 files, the then Northern Ireland secretary of state Dr John Reid provided a 16-page document to the inquiry in February 2002, nearly 18 months after information was sought.
In addition, a file of photographs of suspects collected by the Garda, which were shown to potential witnesses in the weeks after the bombings, "have been missing since 1993 at least".
Welcoming the inquiry's report, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, last night said the need for "answers and clarity" shared by all relatives of the victims had not diminished 30 years on. The Oireachtas committee will now have three months to see if the inquiry addressed all of its terms of reference, although the TDs and senators have no powers to make any findings of their own.