A clipping from a 1975 edition of The Irish Times, which indicated that the Lord Mayor of Dublin's father was the victim of a hijack the night before the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, does not prove any link between the hijacking and the bombing, said the Justice for the Forgotten group, who have called on the gardaí to clarify the situation.
The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr Royston Brady, claimed last night that the clipping proves the validity of his claim that his father's taxi had been hijacked on the eve of the bombings.
The news report, carried on the front page of The Irish Times dated Friday, May 17th, 1974, "outlines it in the way I was told the story", said Mr Brady on radio last night.
The article said that two Dublin taxis were hijacked by armed men in separate incidents on the evening of May 16th, 1974. The report named Mr Edward Brady of Coolock as the victim of the second hijack which occurred at 6.30 p.m. at the Rathmines taxi-rank. Three men ordered him to drive to Taylor's Grange, in the Dublin mountains, where he was released.
Ms Margaret Urwin, campaign secretary for Justice for the Forgotten, said the gardaí were now "the people with questions to answer". She said that although hijacking was a common occurrence in the North in the 1970s, it was unusual in the Republic.
"I would like the gardaí to confirm that two taxis were hijacked and I would like them to tell us where was Mr Brady's taxi found. Did they believe it had no link to the bombings and what were their reasons for believing this?" Ms Urwin said last night.