The group representing the survivors of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings has called on the Northern Secretary, Dr Reid, not to come empty-handed to his proposed meeting with Mr Justice Barron, who is inquiring into the origins of the 1974 atrocities in which 33 people died.
The call comes amid growing Government pressure and all-party support in the Dβil for the British authorities to hand over security files.
The Taoiseach raised the issue forcibly with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, during the recent British-Irish Council meeting in Dublin. Mr Blair said he would co-operate in a "positive spirit" and agreed the Secretary of State should meet Mr Justice Barron, the head of the Independent Commission inquiring into the bombings.
There is concern at Government level and among the survivors and their families that the British government does not wish to hand over sensitive security files to an inquiry in the Republic. Although such files have been released to the Bloody Sunday inquiry, it is believed there is hesitancy over the "cross-jurisdictional" nature of the Dublin and Monaghan inquiry.
Mr Justice Barron's commission has been inquiring into the events since February last year but has yet to receive any documentary evidence from the RUC or British security services about the events preceding the bombings. No one was charged with the Dublin or Monaghan bombings or with any of the other fatal bomb attacks carried out in the Republic by loyalists.
Mrs Bernie McNally, of the Justice for the Forgotten group, said: "We were happy with his [Mr Blair's] comments. We just hope that when Dr Reid meets Judge Barron he has a bundle of files under his arm. We are tired of excuses and lip service."
Mrs McNally is one of the victims who continue to suffer from her injuries. On the day of Mr Blair's visit to Dublin she underwent surgery to rebuild her eye socket.
She received severe eye injuries when one of the three Dublin bombs exploded near the corner of Gardiner Street and Talbot Street on May 17th 1974. She was 16 and working as an assistant in O'Neill's shoe shop. As a result of her injuries she lost her eye in 1998. She is married with four children and her husband, John, represented her at the peaceful protest by members of the campaign at Dublin Castle during the British-Irish Council meeting.
Mrs McNally said the families and survivors of the bombs continued to suffer and wanted to see "closure" with the revelation of what happened in 1974. She said the elderly parents of victims, and victims who themselves were growing elderly, desperately wanted to know what had happened.
The members of the campaign particularly want to hear a British government response to repeated claims that there was security force collusion in the bombings.
The bombings took place during the Ulster Workers' Council (UWC) strike in May 1974 which brought down the experiment in power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.
There was no admission of responsibility at the time but in 1994, after claims of collusion were made, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) issued a statement saying: "the entire operation was, from its conception to its successful conclusion, planned and carried out by our volunteers aided by no outside bodies."
In the three Dublin bombs, 10 people were killed in Parnell Street, 14 in Talbot Street and two in South Leinster Street. Seven people were killed later in the day when a bomb exploded in Monaghan.