FAMILIES OF SLAIN ‘ARE FORGOTTEN’

THE families of the victims killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombs have accused the British and Irish governments of forgetting about those who lost their lives in the blasts.

Families gathered around the official memorial honouring the 35 people killed in the bombings, including two unborn babies, yesterday afternoon.

United in grief and their campaign for truth, many of them spoke about their long fight to find out what happened on May 17, 1974.

Alice O’Brien lost her sister Anna, her brother-in-law

John and the couple’s two young children — fivemonth-old Anne-Marie and 17-month-old Jacqueline — in the bomb on Parnell Street.

“We’ve been forgotten for 50 years, so hopefully now we might get the files (on the case) off the British government,” she said.

Ms O’Brien claimed the UK and Irish governments wound down the investigation into the murders in 1974 as they were trying to preserve the troubled Sunningdale powersharing agreement in the North.

“There was no-one brought to justice, even though they knew who done it, they had identification of people and they still done nothing,” she said.

Memories

Ms O’Brien said she still has vivid memories of the day of the bombings.

“I was only 15 when it happened and then when they went down to identify the bodies it was like a slaughterhouse in the mortuary,” she said.

She said she hopes the Denton report in 2025 will finally deliver “truth” for the families.

Anna’s other sister, Cathy Ellis, said that she remembers her mother being told about their deaths.

“I was only six and was jumping around,” she said.

“We’ve been asking for the truth for years but are not being heard. This could have been sorted a long time ago.

“My kids are all grown up and I didn’t ever like them coming into town. Was always afraid. I was waiting for something to happen.”

Atrocity

Michelle O’Brien, whose mother Anne Byrne was killed in the 1974 atrocity, said the families had been treated disgracefully by the state in the 50 years since.

“Not a day that goes by that we don’t think about her,” she said of her mother.

“It’s the governments who have forgotten about them. It’s the people in power that have forgotten about the fact that these people were murdered in cold blood.”

She voiced anger at the suggestion closed files on the bombings held in archives in Dublin will not be released for decades.

“Apparently there’s files that have been closed here for the next 50 years,” she said. “Now I won’t be around in 50 years’ time, neither will my dad, my dad’s 88 this year. He was 37 when he lost his wife and was left to raise two kids.”

On the state response to the bombings and the subsequent campaign for justice, Michelle O’Brien said: “It’s just a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace. I cannot believe that we have been left for so long asking the same questions.

“And no matter what politician you meet, they’d promise you the sun, moon and stars. They don’t even give you the stars. They give you nothing, nothing.”

Ms O’Brien expressed hope that Operation Denton, an investigation headed up by former Police Scotland chief constable Iain Livingstone.

PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins has said it is “unacceptable” that nobody had been held accountable for the Dublin and Monaghan bombings — and said relatives of the victims had been “abandoned and failed”.

A wreath-laying ceremony was held in Dublin to mark the 50th anniversary of the deadly attacks on May 17, 1974 when three no-warning bombs went off across Dublin city centre and one in Monaghan town.

No-one has ever been convicted over the bombings but the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) admitted responsibility in 1993.

It remains the biggest loss of life on any single day of the Troubles.

The ceremony took place in Talbot Street, Dublin, where an official memorial honours the 35 people killed in the bombings, including two unborn babies.

Another 300 people are estimated to have been injured in the blasts.

Savagery

President Michael D Higgins said: “Even in the context of the many atrocities committed at that time, the Dublin and Monaghan car bombings of 1974 were crimes of a particular level of savagery, executed consciously upon workers and civilians with total disregard for human life and suffering.

“Like the families of so many other victims and survivors of the Northern Ireland conflict, so many of you here today have been trying to find answers about what happened.”

Mr Higgins said it is a “matter of profound regret” and

“unacceptable” that no one had been held accountable for the atrocities.