1974 bomb victims press for full public inquiry

The victims and victims' relatives of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings will take legal action against the State if a full public inquiry into the atrocities is not established, an Oireachtas subcommittee was told yesterday.

Mr Michael Mansfield QC, acting on behalf of Mr Ed O'Neill, Ms Bernie Bergin and Mr John Bergin, was addressing the Oireachtas Justice Joint Committee's subcommittee on the Barron Report. Arguing that the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights meant the Government had "little or no option other than to order a public inquiry", Mr Mansfield said the right to life - as guaranteed in the Convention's Article 2 - was violated by a failure to carry out an effective and thorough investigation following the unlawful killings.

He said the moral starting point for a legal obligation to establish a public inquiry was the reasonable expectation of the families. "And given the size of the atrocity we're dealing with, a community beyond the victims was affected by what happened."

The European Convention was cognisant of this, he said, and the systemic nature of the tragedy, involving many aspects of the State and community, meant a public inquiry was necessary to "restore public confidence in the system of justice".

He said one could not prejudge a properly constituted inquiry on the basis of what it might come up with.

"It might not come up with anything but the public will be reassured that it has come about in a public and open way. One must keep the merits separate from the procedural argument."

He stressed that a public inquiry would be fruitful. He was confident that the British government would hand over files to a public inquiry that it had refused to the private Barron inquiry.

"If the British Government refused to co-operate with a public inquiry, it could be found to be in breach of the European Convention".

Mr Eoin McGonigal SC, also for the families, agreed that the British would make documents available to a public inquiry. He and Mr Mansfield recommended a public inquiry be chaired by a judge from neither Britain nor Ireland. They suggested a chairman might come from the US.

"If an international judge of authority and standing chaired the inquiry, it would send a message to the British that the documents are relevant and that those documents will be treated with the respect that the government sending them expects," said Mr McGonigal. Senator Jim Walsh (FF) asked Mr Mansfield why, if the legal case for the establishment of a public inquiry was so strong under the European Convention, his clients had not taken legal action against the State compelling it to establish one.

Mr Mansfield answered, "Watch this space".

Speaking to The Irish Times after the hearing, Mr Mansfield said that if a public inquiry was not ordered, he would take legal action against the State on behalf of his clients.