Too little, too late for victims of bombings

● Sir — There has been much media coverage of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. However, it is all too little, too late.

I was a schoolgirl in Monaghan when the bombs went off. For many years I believed the IRA was responsible for this atrocity, understandably, given its record.

Later, I realised these atrocities were perpetrated by loyalist paramilitaries with the hidden assistance of state agents of a foreign power. I wondered why I had wrongly jumped to my initial conclusions, but a brief look back at what was said at the time, especially by the government of the day, provided a reasonable explanation.

In a statement to the Dáil following the atrocities, then taoiseach Liam Cosgrave focused exclusively on IRA violence, saying “those who practice it must anticipate an answer in kind”.

The Fine Gael-Labour coalition led by Cosgrave was severely criticised in the report by Mr Justice Henry Barron for failing “to show the concern expected of it” in response to the bombings. Shamefully, Cosgrave even refused to assist the Dáil subcommittee on the Barron Report, saying he had “retired from public life”.

In 1991, two oldage pensioners lobbied Dublin City Council to get a small memorial stone erected at Parnell Square in memory of the victims. I was inspired by their initiative, and in 1992 I organised a wreath-laying ceremony at this memorial, presided over by Tony Gregory.

I wrote to all the members of the Dáil and Seanad, inviting them to attend. From a total of 226 invitations, I received 11 replies.

The relatives I met at that event were so dignified in the face of such betrayal. People such as Edward O’Neill, who lost his father and was himself so badly injured that he wasn’t expect to survive; or the Doyle family, who lost their young daughter, her husband and their two little children; or the family of Collette Doherty, who was nine months pregnant; and the late Frank Massey, who lost his 21-year-old daughter Anna.

I remember Frank telling me: “All I want before I die is to know the truth.”

His words haunt me to this day, as he died without hearing the truth or finding justice.

The victims and their families were abandoned and betrayed not only by the Cosgrave government, but by all governments that followed. This is a crime in itself. Fifty years is too late for so many.

Patricia McKenna,

Glasnevin, Dublin 9