Remembering the forgotten victims of Dublin and Monaghan

By Cormac Moore (for the Irish News)

Last Friday a new documentary film, MAY-17-74: Anatomy of a Massacre, produced by Fergus Dowd and directed by Joe Lee, opened in the Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield in Dublin.

It is poignant and powerful film on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, that took place this week 50 years ago, with the suffering and trauma experienced by the victims and their bereaved at its core.

Even though it was the worst day for fatalities throughout the whole Troubles, to date no-one has been arrested, let alone questioned, charged or sentenced for the atrocities.

The devastation the bombs caused to so many lives was enormous. One whole family, the O’Brien family, was wiped out by the first explosion on Parnell Street, just before 5.30pm on Friday May 17 1974. John (24) and Anna (nee Doyle) (22) had been married for three years. Originally from Finglas, they were living on Gardiner Street.

They had two daughters, Jacqueline, who was born nearly 17 months earlier on January 2 1973, and Anne-Marie, who was born exactly a year later on January 2 1974. She was less than 5 months old.

John worked in the ice cream company Palm Grove. They were right beside the bomb car on Parnell Street as it exploded. Alice, Anna’s sister, said: “One baby was thrown. I’d say it was shock mainly that killed that child, but the other baby was burnt and she was blown into the cellar of the Welcome Inn pub.”

The entire young family was wiped out in a moment. Their loved ones left behind had to suffer for decades afterwards, mainly by themselves.

Six other people were killed by the Parnell Street bomb: Marie Butler (21); John Dargle (80); Patrick Fay (47); Antonio Magliocco (37); Edward O’Neill (39); and Breda Turner (21).

As 30-year-old French woman Simone Chetrit was walking on Talbot Street towards Connolly Station to get a train, with her friend Dominique d’Amiens, she heard the sound of the Parnell Street bomb. She looked at Dominique and said: “That’s a bomb. People may need our help.”

As they were making their way to Parnell Street, the second bomb exploded close by, killing her and injuring Dominique. The day was meant to be her last full day in Ireland. She had come from Paris to Dublin for two weeks to learn English, staying with the Gunn family in Raheny. Simone and her friend Dominique stayed on for an extra two weeks to improve their English and were buying flowers and chocolates on Talbot Street for a farewell party at the Gunns’ house before they got caught up in the bomb.

Fifteen people lost their lives from the Talbot Street bomb, including 21-year-old Colette Doherty from nearby Sheriff Street, who was nine months pregnant and due to enter the hospital that evening to have her baby. She was on Talbot Street with her 22-month-old daughter Wendy in a buggy. She was killed instantly when a piece of shrapnel pierced her heart.

Her mother Winifred described Colette as “a good girl, she was an ambitious girl, and she always wanted to get on… and to think, she was nine months pregnant at the time, so her little unborn baby was the 34th victim of the bombing”. After the bomb, Wendy was seen wandering the streets, barefoot, looking for her mother.

The other people killed from the Talbot Street bomb were: Josie Bradley (21); Anne Byrne (35); Concepta Dempsey (65); Elizabeth Fitzgerald (59); Breda Grace (35); May McKenna (55); Anne Marren (20); Dorothy Morris (57); Marie Phelan (19); Siobhán Roice (19); Maureen Shields (46); and John Walshe (27).

Shortly afterwards, over the River Liffey, the third explosion went off on South Leinster Street, all happening within 90 seconds of each other, all with no warning, all aimed at causing the maximum number of casualties.

Anna Massey, from Sallynoggin in Dublin, and her twin sister Muriel had celebrated their 21st birthday days earlier on May 12. Anna was writing wedding invitations, along with her fiancé Tommy, the previous night. They were due to be married on July 26. She worked as a personal secretary at Lisney and Sons, Auctioneers on St Stephen’s Green. On her way home from work that evening, she was killed by the car bomb on South Leinster Street.

Anna was walking with Christina O’Loughlin at the time. They knew each other as Anna’s uncle worked with Christina at the Shelbourne Hotel, where Christina worked as a French polisher. 51-year-old Christina was making her way home to Townsend Street when she was killed by the blast. Anna and Christina were the two fatalities from the South Leinster Street bomb.

As word spread of the three bombs in Dublin, people watched news bulletins in shock at their homes as well as in bars where they were having their end-of-week drinks, including at Greacen’s Pub in Monaghan Town. Shortly before 7pm, the fourth bomb exploded close to the pub.

Thomas Campbell (52) was an agricultural worker and lived at home with his mother. She was unable to go to her son’s funeral. According to her daughter Mary, she died six weeks later of a broken heart.

Thomas and six other people died from the Monaghan bomb. They were: Patrick Askin (44); Thomas Croarkin (36); Archie Harper (73); Jack Travers (28); Peggy White (44); and George Williamson (72).

In total, 34 people were brutally killed with hundreds more injured, many seriously. The word most of the families use to encapsulate their experience since the bombs of 1974 is “forgotten”. They felt forgotten by the Irish state and gardaí who, instead of thoroughly investigating the crimes, abandoned and ignored them for decades.

They felt forgotten by Irish society too, as their experiences faded from collective memory, side-lined while other atrocities were memorialised prominently.

And they certainly felt forgotten by British governments, both Labour and Conservative, who have ignored countless requests, belatedly from Irish governments, and repeatedly by organisations such as Justice for the Forgotten, to cooperate and provide intelligence documents that could shed light on British security force involvement with the UVF members who carried out the attacks.

Such information could help to provide families with answers and closure, to help in some way to ease their suffering that began so egregiously 50 years ago this week.

As with so many other legacy-related issues, unfortunately, they may be waiting for a long time more for co-operation to come from this or any other British government.

Urgent Appeal