Kenny to raise 1974 bombings with Cameron

MEMORIAL:ON THE 37th anniversary Dublin Monaghan bombings yesterday, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that he will raise the question of the release of the British files with prime minister David Cameron.

Mr Kenny told the Dáil he would speak to Mr Cameron today about the release of the files.

Earlier a group representing survivors said that Queen Elizabeth’s visit coinciding with the anniversary represented a “golden opportunity” to release files.

Justice for the Forgotten spokeswoman Margaret Urwin called on Mr Kenny to appeal to Mr Cameron to allow previously unseen British government files to form part of a new inquiry. “This anniversary is a remarkable one as it takes place at the same time as the British monarch arrives for her first ever visit,” she said.

“As prime minister David Cameron will accompany her and is due to meet our Taoiseach Enda Kenny tomorrow, we believe this occasion affords Mr Cameron a wonderful, a golden opportunity to make a genuine significant gesture of reconciliation.”

Ms Urwin was speaking after relatives laid wreaths to mark the 37th anniversary of the bombings at a memorial on Talbot Street, Dublin. She said her group was appealing to Mr Cameron to “open the files” withheld from the late Mr Justice Henry Barron, whose inquiry reported in 2003, and to allow a new judicial inquiry.

Pat Fay, whose father Patrick died in the bombings, asked for a minute’s silence before piper Eoin Dillon played a lament. About 200 people attended the event, which was addressed by Bernie McNally, who was injured in the bombings.

Politicians present included Lord Mayor of Dublin Gerry Breen; Labour TDs Joe Costello and Aodhán Ó Riordáin, and Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams. Socialist TDs Joe Higgins and Clare Daly and Richard Boyd Barrett of People Before Profit

No group claimed responsibility for the 1974 bombings, but loyalists were blamed and there have been allegations elements of the British military colluded.