Garda collusion questions remain on Dublin/Monaghan

The Barron report on the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings suppressed allegations that the 26 County Garda police colluded in the attacks, according to retired Irish military intelligence officer Lt Col John Morgan.

Thirty-three died in the attacks, which were claimed by the unionist paramilitary UVF but in which the collusion of state forces has always been alleged.

A parliamentary sub-committee in Dublin has recommended an interim inquiry into the bombing to be conducted by an international judicial figure under British jurisdiction.

Barron's report said: ``There have been no allegations that the Irish government, An Garda Síochána or the Irish Army played any deliberate part in the Dublin/Monaghan bombings.''

Morgan has said that the report omitted his testimony about garda collusion. The Attorney General's office is now examining his claim that the report excluded information he gave to Barron's inquiry.

The parliamentary sub-committee said last Wednesday that as well as a public inquiry into the bombings, there should be two separate inquiries in the South to examine why crucial garda files on the bombings went missing and why the investigation into the bombings was wound up within months.

Barron reported that the British government and its Northern Ireland Office failed to assist his inquiry.

Committee chairman Sean Ardagh urged the government to press the British authorities to hold a full public inquiry into the bombings.

Ardagh said that, if the British government refused to carry out an inquiry, the Irish government should consider taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights.

However, there are many questions which are now being asked about the actions of the authorities in the 26 Countues.

Relatives of the victims of the bombings are now asking why gardai failed to question a key witness to the Dublin attacks.

The suspect was listed on garda security files at Crime as being a ``known'' associate of bombing suspect Joseph Stewart Young.

He checked out of a city-centre hotel in Dublin on May 17, 1974, the day of the bombings after a seven-day stay.

His seven-day stay at the hotel came to light during routine Dublin garda inquiries in the immediate aftermath of the bombings.

The Barron Inquiry found nothing to suggest that this man was actually involved in the bombing of Dublin and Monaghan. But the gardai at the time incredibly did not choose to interview him to eliminate him from inquiries.

The man, from the border area, is also alleged to have acted as an agent of the Gardai, handled by a detective (now retired) in the area since the early 1970s.

Justice for the Forgotten, the group representing families of those bereaved or injured in the bombings, have said that an inquiry must be in place by the end of April, when inquests are due to begin into the deaths of those killed in the attacks. The group is still calling for an international, independent public inquiry.

Urgent Appeal