‘Dad didn’t want to be a victim, because that is not what he was — he was a survivor’

Derek Byrne woke up in a morgue after Dublin-Monaghan bombings He had trials with Spurs and Everton, but his dreams were smashed to pieces 50 years ago this week, writes Ali Bracken

Derek Byrne was counting down the minutes until his shift as a petrol pump attendant in the heart of Dublin ended. The 14-yearold had used his lunch break that day, May 17, 1974, to rush out to buy football boots ahead of plans to catch the ferry to England that evening. He had been selected for trials with Everton and Tottenham Hotspur.

But life had entirely different plans for the aspiring footballer. As he served his last customer that day at Westbrook Motor Company on Parnell Street, with his left hand still on the petrol pump, the first of four UVF car bombs planted in Dublin and Monaghan went off about 10 feet away.

“He was blown back several feet. The petrol pump was impaled into his left hand,” his son Keelan Mulgrew-Byrne said. “He suffered countless injuries and broken bones. He was in and out of consciousness. He saw some terrible things. He remembered a priest giving him the last rites. Then, a few hours later, he woke up in the morgue with a sheet over him.”

Doctors had pronounced him dead in hospital.

“There was a lady working in the morgue. Dad used to tell us she got the fright of her life when he woke up,” his son said. “They met years later and talked about it.”

But the boy from Talbot Street in Dublin’s north inner city had suffered catastrophic injuries.

His daughter Danielle MulgrewByrne said: “He was only two weeks in his first job. He took it to help out with money for his mother at home — she had 10 kids. After he woke up after being pronounced dead, he had surgery and spent the next three months in a coma. Then he spent about 18 months in the rehabilitation hospital in Dun Laoghaire.

“He had to learn to walk again and write with his right hand as he was left-handed. He was in constant pain for the rest of his life. They could never get all the shrapnel out of his body and he could never have an MRI because of it. He was left with scars on his face.

“Our dad would do anything for us kids, but he didn’t like bringing us to the park. He hated having to explain to people about his injuries, telling people about the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, because most people didn’t know much about it.”

The psychological scars Mr Byrne suffered as a consequence of the bombing were also life-long. The horrors he saw before he lost consciousness as the second bomb went off were as unshakeable as his physical injuries, his children said.

As he lay maimed from the blast, he saw the decapitated remains of an Italian man from the chipper across the street.

An entire family had just entered the shop and all were killed. He could see a baby’s pram motionless in the roadway. He later learned the baby was among the dead.

“Dad suffered a lot of flashbacks. Insomnia was a big issue, too. We’d get up for school and he’d have our breakfast and everything else ready, because he’d been up all night,” Ms Mulgrew-Byrne recalled. “The month of May was a really difficult time for him in particular.”

His teenage dreams of a football career were ended by the bomb blast, but he did not let the atrocity define the rest of his life.

“He definitely would have given the football a good try, but that dream was ended,” Mr Mulgrew-Byrne said. “Instead, he threw himself into coaching at Belvedere FC in Clontarf. He channelled his energy into coaching and it saved him in a way.”

When he was in his 20s, Mr Byrne met his wife Liz, also from the north inner city, and the couple went on to have five children. He remained a dedicated family man up until his death at 63 last November.

“It was love at first sight for the two of them. Dad lived for his family, he would do anything for us. He spent our whole lives in and out of hospitals, getting operations,” Ms Mulgrew-Byrne said.

“He was in constant pain, but he was also a very happy man who always put us all first.

“He was always cracking jokes — the same 20 jokes, mind you. Making us happy, making us laugh, that’s all he ever wanted to do. He was a great father.”

Mr Byrne had nearly three dozen operations over almost five decades to try to improve the quality of his life following the bombing.

His plans to work as a tradesman were dashed as his injuries rendered working with his hands impossible.

He had a series of different jobs throughout his life, but his health created difficulties. He worked in security, construction and for Dublin Corporation.

“He did his very best to provide for his family and he did do that, but it wasn’t easy for him. A lot of the jobs were too physically demanding, so he would have to leave,” Ms Mulgrew-Byrne said.

“He didn’t want to be a victim, because that is not what he was — he was a survivor.”

However, at the same time he wanted justice, his son said.

This Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, which claimed 34 lives. On May 17, 1974, three no-warning bombs went off across Dublin city centre and one in Monaghan town. No one has ever been convicted, but the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) admitted responsibility in 1993. It remains the single greatest loss of life on any single day of the Troubles.

Mr Byrne died just days after he attended court in Belfast as part of a long-running claim for damages on behalf of victims.

The families, who allege Northern police and military collusion in the atrocities, have been pursuing damages in Belfast High Court since 2014.

Mr Byrne’s lawyer, Kevin Winters,

Only two things come out in the end: the sun and the truth. We’ll keep fighting for Dad

said his client had joined the long list of Troubles victims who did not live to see the conclusion of their legal cases.

“In December 2018, Derek was part of a large group of families of victims and survivors who travelled to Belfast to listen as the High Court ordered the release of documents in their case,” he said.

“However the state immediately appealed the order and issued motions to strike the case out.

“Nearly five years on, Derek returned to the same court to hear the defendants’ arguments to prevent discovery of material.

“He travelled wheelchair-bound on the train from Dublin. He did so knowing he was severely life-limited and very much against medical advice. Five days later, he succumbed to his many illnesses and died.

“His incredible survival of that bomb blast was bookended 50 years on by his defiant act of attending court when at death’s door.”

Mr Winters said there was a “real poignancy” that Mr Byrne had died before hearing the outcome of the case. His son and daughter said there had been “no preventing” their father from attending court last November.

“He was in end-of-life care, with an oxygen tank, but there was no stopping him from getting on that train,” Ms Mulgrew-Byrne said.

“He would say to us growing up,

‘If they offered me a cheque for a million euro, I’d hand it back’. And we’d say, ‘Pull the other one’. But he meant it.

“What he wanted was accountability. He also didn’t want us kids to be left with this fight. But, sadly, he passed away without getting to hear an outcome, without answers. And we will keep this going, because he deserves it and so do all of the other families.”

Mr Mulgrew-Byrne remembered his father as a brave man who always saw the bright side of life despite what he had been through.

“Dad used to always say, ‘Only two things come out in the end: the sun and the truth’. We’ll keep fighting until we get the truth for him,” he said.

● Sir — The announcement by Media Minister Catherine Martin that details of the census taken on April 18, 1926, will be published online a century later “in accordance with the Government’s open data strategy” struck me as incongruous as this openness is not usually put into practice. Here are a few examples.

• The government-appointed independent Electoral Commission, contrary to established previous practice, declined to publish the submissions made by public and state persons, so we can’t see why they decided what they did or who did or didn’t influence them.

• Minister for Local Government Darragh O’Brien continues his practice of NOT publishing annually, for all councils, details of how each dealt with complaints of unauthorised development, how many prosecutions they took, if any, and convictions secured. This is covering up bullying of council staff by

TDs and councillors and possible corruption in favour of potentially crooked developers. Unauthorised development files, contrary to an order made by a Green minister years ago, remain closed to public scrutiny.

• This year marks the 10th anniversary of the termination by former minister Phil Hogan — without plausible explanation — of the country’s town and borough councils, which existed for over a century, leaving nothing in their place. It seems nobody but the parish priest represents townspeople. The annual report by my abolished town council has been replaced by nothing. My pursuit of Mr Hogan’s justification for his action under Freedom of Information was treated with disdain by the secretary general to the government and opacity by the Freedom of Information commissioner.

• The Government Publications Office, formerly on Molesworth Street in Dublin, was closed over a decade ago as a “cost-saving measure” by former minister Brian Hayes and moved to a cul-de-sac in Kilmainham, where no personal callers are welcome and only online stuff may be bought. Browsing of hard copy documents, including related publications, is no longer allowed. The rationale for the cost-saving measure is akin to proposing fire brigade stations be closed because they are used so infrequently.

John F Colgan,

Leixlip, Co Kildare