Loughinisland report ­– links to Dublin and Monaghan bombings to be raised in Dáil ‘at earliest opportunity’

THE Police Ombudsman’s report into the murder of six men at Loughinisland in 1994 by an Ulster Volunteer Force death squad including RUC Special Branch informers is to be raised in the Dáil “at the earliest opportunity” by Dublin Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe. Deputy Crowe says the gang operated from a base directly linked to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings by the UVF in 1974.

Deputy Crowe (pictured) is a member of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

Six men were killed and five more wounded in the UVF gun attack on The Heights Bar in Loughinisland, County Down, on 18 June 1994 while watching an Ireland v Italy World Cup soccer match.

The six men cut down by the UVF as they watched the football were Daniel McCreanor (59), Adrian Rogan (34), Malcolm Jenkinson (52), Eamon Byrne (39), Patrick O’Hare (35) and Barney Greene (87).

The Police Ombudsman in the Six Counties said in his report published yesterday:

“I have no hesitation in saying collusion [between RUC police officers and the UVF] was a significant feature of the Loughinisland murders.”

Seán Crowe said today:

“The depth of collusion detailed in the Police Ombudsman’s Report goes beyond the Loughinisland massacre and makes a direct link with the Glenanne Gang, who were involved in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.”

Thirty-four people lost their lives when three no-warning car bombs exploded in Dublin and a fourth caused devastation in Monaghan on 17 May 1974. The dead included a pregnant woman and her baby.

It is the greatest loss of life on a single day of the conflict.

A report in 2003 by former Irish Supreme Court judge Henry Barron found grounds for suspecting the bombers may have had help from members of the British military, intelligence and security forces.

The Glenanne Gang included loyalist killers, British Army soldiers from the Ulster Defence Regiment and serving as well as former RUC police officers. A number were working as agents or informers for British Military Intelligence, MI5 and RUC Special Branch.

Seán Crowe said today:

“No one can now deny that the British Government and its state forces actively colluded with loyalist death squads to murder Irish citizens and then went to extraordinary lengths to protect those directly and indirectly involved.

“The depths of collusion detailed in the Police Ombudsman’s Report go beyond the Loughinisland massacre and it makes a direct link with the Glenanne Gang, who were involved in the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

“The British state continues to prevaricate and withhold vital information on these bombings despite years of campaigning by the victims and their families and three all-party Dáil motions calling on them to release the relevant files.

“The British authorities need to acknowledge their responsibility and open up their files to independent scrutiny.

“I intend to raise this Police Ombudsman’s Report in the Dáil at the first available opportunity and to put it on the agenda of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement as soon as it is reconvened.”