Sir, - The obituary of the former Garda Commissioner, Patrick Malone (Irish Times February 3rd) was of particular interest to the bereaved and wounded of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan Bombings. It stated: ". . .the Garda, under his [Commissioner Malone's] direction, did engage in an amount of intelligence gathering in the North. This entailed unofficial contact with the RUC and British army, which produced valuable intelligence but which was kept secret from government."
There are alarming implications in this statement that warrant official investigation, particularly given the ongoing suspicions that the 1974 bombings (which remains the biggest unsolved murder case in the history of the Irish State) involved operational support by elements of the RUC and the British Army.
Two questions are pertinent. How and why did Commissioner Malone's Northern intelligence sources fail so appallingly to alert him to the impending attack? What was the nature of An Garda Siochana's "secret" contact with the RUC, British Army and British Intelligence and did this potentially compromise the course of justice in solving political mass murder in the Republic?
I was also intrigued by the letter from the former Minister for Justice, Patrick Cooney (February 6th) in response to the obituary. He robustly rebuffed suggestions that Commissioner Malone "came under immense political pressure" from the government of the day. He rejected "categorically" that there was any "impropriety in [his] dealings on behalf of the Government with the Guards". This is in marked contrast to his unwillingness to be interviewed for my book The Dublin and Monaghan Bombings (Wolfhound Press, October 2000). He wrote to me on May 2nd, 2000, stating: "Having retired and closed the door, I am not keen on reopening it and trying to joggle memory. Regretfully therefore, I have to decline your request. . ."
For the families of the 33 murder victims and the hundred maimed, this is a luxury they have never been afforded by either Government or Garda. It is to be hoped that Justice Barron's Independent Commission of Inquiry will be an important first step in helping the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings find healing for wounds that have, due to official abandonment, never closed. - Yours, etc.,
Don Mullan, Hillsbrook Crescent, Perrystown, Dublin 12.