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13 December 2016

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Victims’ groups ‘utterly reject offensive remarks’ by Irish Independent on Dublin/Monaghan bombings

‘Using victims in this way is a new low for the Independent and is reminiscent of British propaganda about responsibility for some loyalist attacks during the conflict’

TRUTH RECOVERY and victims campaign groups Justice for the Forgotten and the Pat Finucane Centre have launched a withering attack on the Irish Independent, accusing it of “playing fast and loose” with the feelings of the bereaved families and survivors of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings to attack Sinn Féin and Gerry Adams in Tuesday’s newspaper.

The joint statement “utterly rejects the offensive remarks of Eamon Delaney in today’s Irish Independent regarding responsibility for the Dublin and Monaghan bombings”.

Thirty-four people were killed some 300 injured in attacks on Dublin and Monaghan on 17 May 1974.

The respected campaign groups declare in a statement headed “Response on behalf of the bereaved families and survivors of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings to Eamon Delaney’s article in today’s Irish Independent”:

“Using victims in this way is a new low for the Independent and is reminiscent of British propaganda about responsibility for some loyalist attacks during the conflict.

“The article is one of the most ill-considered and intemperate examples of ‘whataboutery’ we have seen.”

The statement continues:

“Mr Delaney claims that Sinn Féin and the IRA were ‘partly responsible for the Dublin and Monaghan bombings’ and uses a quote which he alleges was made by the then Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrave, ‘on the very day of the bombings’. He quotes Cosgrave as stating: ‘The IRA led by example, with its relentless bombings in the North and in Britain’. In fact, Cosgrave did not use those words on the day of the bombings when he addressed the nation on TV.”

The Dublin and Monaghan bombings were carried out by the Glenanne Gang, the statement reiterates.

Collusion UDR/UVF/RUC

This was a group which included members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary police, soldiers of the British Army’s Ulster Defence Regiment, and the illegal unionist Ulster Volunteer Force paramilitary death squad.

“A number of the UVF members were agents of British Intelligence and RUC Special Branch,” the campaign groups point out.

“The greatest atrocity of the conflict – combined with the Ulster Workers’ Council strike – was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the power-sharing Executive at Stormont and, above all, to prevent the Council of Ireland from being implemented.

“It had little to do with the IRA campaign.

“The strike and the bombings had the desired result, which left the Irish Government afraid to raise its head above the parapet for a long time afterwards.

“The UVF (at the time it planted the bombs and slaughtered 34 civilians on the streets of Dublin and Monaghan) was in the process of being legalised by the British Government and, despite the huge loss of life, the process continued and the UVF became a legal organisation on 23 May 1974, six days after the bombings.

“Mr Delaney’s attempt to rewrite history does a huge disservice to the families and survivors by trying to deflect attention away from where the responsibility actually lies and, as he will be well aware, the British Government has ignored three Dáil motions – passed unanimously in 2008, 2011 and 2016 – urging the disclosure of documents it has continued to withhold since the early years of this century.

“It is a pity that the Independent does not use its good offices to challenge the British Government on its failure to comply with these motions of our Parliament.

“It is worth recalling that Colonel Derek Wilford, who commanded the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment, on Bloody Sunday, tried to blame the IRA for the British Army’s massacre of 14 civilians.

“Mr Delaney’s remarks make the implementation of the Stormont House Agreement, without further foot-dragging on the part of the British Government, all the more urgent.”

Dublin & Monaghan Bombs monument

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