In the run-up to the tenth anniversary of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, many of the survivors and the bereaved declined to speak to journalists. Their reluctance came, not just from the trauma of remembering the worst atrocity in the history of the State, but from a deep sense of abandonment.
They felt betrayed by the media, which had paid scant attention to their plight, by the State, which had done little to provide for their welfare, and by the Garda, which had failed to bring the perpetrators to justice. That neglect has been ended in recent years by the Justice for the Forgotten campaign, but the change in attitudes may have come too late to give the survivors the answers they have sought. Two reports on the bombings, by the Hamilton/Barron inquiry and by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice contained more questions than answers. Now, a third - the report of the Commission of Investigation under Paddy MacEntee SC - suggests those questions may now be unanswerable.
It is true that the MacEntee report does allay perhaps the darkest anxiety of the survivors. They feared that the State's neglect, and in particular the loss and destruction of large amounts of documentation relating to the investigation of the bombings, reflected an active cover-up of the crimes. In the context of suspicions that elements of the British security forces and intelligence services may have colluded in the atrocities, such fears are understandable. It is of some consolation, therefore that the commission finds that in only one case did the Garda fail to follow up a significant lead and that the loss of documentation was not linked to allegations of collusion.
Less comforting, however, is the shocking failure of the Garda to maintain the integrity of its files on the bombings. The report finds not merely that a large amount of documentation was lost or destroyed but that it is not even possible to discover what these documents were. This extreme carelessness makes it very difficult for the State to criticise, as it should, the failure of the British authorities to provide Mr MacEntee with original copies of security and intelligence documents he sought. Thus, not only is it impossible to conduct a full inquiry into the State's reaction to the bombings, but it is also very difficult to pressurise the British authorities on the issue.
Yet the State has, as Mr MacEntee puts it, "continuing constitutional and human rights obligations to the victims of these bombings". If it cannot fulfil these by accounting for the investigation of the crimes against them, it must attempt to do so in other ways. A sincere apology to the victims and a proper memorial to the dead might provide some assurance they are not forgotten.