SINN FÉIN HAS tabled a Dáil motion renewing calls on the British government to release its security files relating to the Dublin-Monaghan bombings of 1974 and other incidents of The Troubles.
The motion, which will be discussed on Tuesday and Wednesday evening, notes that the Dáil adopted a similar motion in 2008 asking Britain to allow an international judicial figure access to its documents on “atrocities which occurred in this jurisdiction”.
That motion had been triggered by the release of the final report of the Barron Inquiry into the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, which killed 34 people on May 17, 1974.
Justice Frank Barron’s report into the incidents found that any comprehensive investigation was made difficult by the fact that London had never released, or made available, its files on the bombs which are attributed to the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force.
The report was later discussed by a Joint Oireachtas Committee which found that the alleged complicity of the British security forces in the bombings could not be ruled out unless the files were released.
The motion coincides with the 37th anniversary of the attacks – and also of the first day of the four-day visit of Queen Elizabeth to Ireland, the first by a British monarch since secession from the United Kingdom.
The Sinn Féin motion mandates Taoiseach Enda Kenny to press the matter with the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, with whom he will hold a bilateral summit on Thursday in parallel to the Queen’s visit.
Today the Justice for the Forgotten group, which represents the families of those killed in the bombings, issued an open letter to the Queen calling on her to instruct Cameron to release the files.
The date of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings saw the single largest loss of life of any day during the Troubles, with 34 people killed in the four separate blasts.
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