Relatives condemn bombings inquiry plan

Relatives of victims of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings have strongly condemned the Government's decision to hold a private inquiry into the events.

The Taoiseach told the Dail yesterday a former Supreme Court judge would be appointed to investigate the bombings. The investigation would be conducted in private, but the judge's final report would be published, Mr Ahern said.

The 1976 murder of a Co Louth farmer, Mr Seamus Ludlow, and a bombing in Dundalk in 1975 in which two people were killed would also be investigated.

A statement from the organisation, Justice for the Forgotten, which represents a number of survivors and relatives of victims of the bombings, said the organisation had "no faith in a private inquiry".

It said proposing such an inquiry "adds insult to the injury suffered by the bereaved and wounded". In all, 34 people were killed in the bombings in Dublin and Monaghan and hundreds were injured.

Mr Ahern told the Dail: "We don't have a lot of evidence as I've said here, but we do have some. The advice of Mr Wilson was that we would get a former Supreme Court judge to examine all that was there . . . and to see from that if there is enough to build an inquiry."

Mr Ahern said to set up a public inquiry, "we have to be inquiring into some evidence and into some facts". At the moment, if the bombings were carried out by people from outside the State as many people believed, there were no witnesses to call.

"We don't have the people who drove the cars, we don't have the people who made the bombs, we don't have any of those people," he told the Dail.

Justice for the Forgotten said the Government's reluctance to hold a public inquiry was "bizarre". The organisation's solicitor, Mr Greg O'Neill, said that while the decision of the Government to establish an inquiry was positive, the suggestion that it would be in private was "completely inappropriate".

He said many people in the organisation believed the Government's wish to keep the inquiry private could be attributed only to its desire to keep secret "that which should be revealed".

"The relatives and victims cannot and will not engage in a private inquiry into mass murder and compromised police inquiries into these murders," Mr O'Neill said.

He said the organisation would engage in what "must be a preliminary examination with the chairman of the case for a public inquiry". It would demonstrate to the chairman "the impossibility and inappropriateness of an inquiry into these matters being conducted other than in public".

The treasurer of the organisation, Mr Pat Fay, whose father died in the bombings, said he was "very disappointed with the Taoiseach". Relatives also said that they were concerned that a private inquiry would not have a statutory basis and would be able to secure co-operation with its investigation only on a voluntary basis.