Families of victims of bombings in the State in the 1970s called yesterday on the Irish and British governments to "lift the smokescreen" and tell the truth about what happened.
At an Oireachtas sub-committee dealing with the aftermath of the Barron report, relatives gave emotional accounts of how the murders had devastated their families, while they received no information from the two governments or the Garda Síochána.
Mr Joe Douglas - a brother of Mr Tommy Douglas (21) , killed by a car-bomb in Dublin on January 20th, 1973 - came from Scotland to give his submission.
"Jack Lynch (the then Taoiseach) gave an assurance that there would be no stone left unturned to find the perpetrators, but there's been nothing. We never heard a word," he said.
The Barron report seemed to leave a lot of loose ends. "They had an abundance of information and yet no one has been arrested. I find that incredible. It's astonishing that they had information there and nothing was done. We all want to move forward, but if there is no closure we can't move forward," Mr Douglas said.
Neither the governments nor gardaí had contacted the family.
"What I want to see is the Irish and British governments get together and push away this smokescreen and tell us what happened, tell the truth," he said.
The committee also heard from the relatives of Geraldine O'Reilly (15) and Patrick Stanley (16), who died in a car-bombing in Belturbet, Co Cavan, on December 28th, 1972.
Ms Frances McCann, the older sister of Ms O'Reilly, said: "There was an anger with why nobody was telling us about it and nobody was got for it. We were just left like that, like all the other families, left alone."
Since then life for them had never been the same. "Even 32 years later, we still feel so broken over this terrible, terrible tragedy in Belturbet," she said.
"December 28th is the feast of the Holy Innocents and certainly the bomb took two innocent people that night," she said.
Ms Greta Farrell, sister of Patrick Stanley, was 13 when her brother was killed.
"It didn't get any easier. We kept our grief to ourselves and nobody helped us come to terms with the grief. Now 32 years after the murder nobody has been arrested," she said.
No garda or politician ever called to tell them how the investigation was going. Their father had been writing for years to politicians and ministers for justice. One minister for justice told him to forget it and move on, Ms Farrell said.
Ms Susan Stanley, another sister, said her mother was six months pregnant with her at the time. "Yesterday, Mr Ahern said nobody was above the law. We're here to seek justice. We need to hear from people, from the British government and the PSNI," she said.
Fr James Carr's sister, Ms Bríd Carr, died on November 19th, 1971, as the result of injuries after being shot in Lifford, Co Donegal.
"There is a latent anger. My sister's case is being ignored. There was no message of sympathy from the State," he said.
Mr Cormac Ó Dulacháin SC, for the Justice for the Forgotten group, said for the families this was not a historical exercise.