Families of Dublin and Monaghan victims accuse governments of forgetting them

The families of the victims killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombs have accused the British and Irish governments of forgetting about those who lost their lives in the blasts.

Families gathered around the official memorial honouring the 35 people killed in the bombings, including two unborn babies, on Friday afternoon.

United in grief and their campaign for truth, many of them spoke about their long fight to find out what happened on May 17, 1974.

Alice O’Brien lost her sister Anna, her brother-in-law John and the couple’s two young children in the bomb on Parnell Street.

“We’ve been forgotten for 50 years, so hopefully now we might get the files (on the case) off the British government,” she told the PA news agency.

Ms O’Brien claimed the UK and Irish governments wound down the investigation into the murders in 1974 as they were trying to preserve the troubled Sunningdale powersharing agreement in Northern Ireland.

“There was no-one brought to justice, even though they knew who done it, they had identification of people and they still done nothing,” she said.

Ms O’Brien said she still has vivid memories of the day of the bombings.

“I was only 15 when it happened and then when they went down to identify the bodies it was like a slaughterhouse in the mortuary,” she said.

She said she hopes the Denton report in 2025 will finally deliver “truth” for the families.

Anna’s other sister, Cathy Ellis, said that she remembers her mother being told about their deaths.

“I was only six and was jumping around,” she said.

“We’ve been asking for the truth for years but are not being heard. This could have been sorted out a long time ago.

“My kids are all grown up and I didn’t ever like them coming into town. Was always afraid. I was waiting for something to happen.”

Michelle O’Brien, whose mother Anne Byrne was killed in the 1974 atrocity, said the families had been treated disgracefully by the state in the 50 years since.

“Not a day that goes by that we don’t think about her,” she said of her mother.

“It’s the governments who have forgotten about them. It’s the people in power that have forgotten about the fact that these people were murdered in cold blood.”

She voiced anger at the suggestion closed files on the bombings held in archives in Dublin will not be released for another 50 years.

“Apparently there’s files that have been closed here for the next 50 years,” she said. “Now I won’t be around in 50 years’ time, neither will my dad, my dad’s 88 this year. He was 37 when he lost his wife and was left to raise two kids.”

On the state response to the bombings and the subsequent campaign for justice, Michelle O’Brien said: “It’s just a disgrace. It’s an absolute disgrace. I cannot believe that we have been left for so long asking the same questions.

“And no matter what politician you meet, they’d promise you the sun, moon and stars. They don’t even give you the stars. They give you nothing, nothing.”

Ms O’Brien expressed hope that Operation Denton, an investigation headed up by former Police Scotland chief constable Sir Iain Livingstone, would provide some answers when it is due to report next year.

But she said it is unlikely the families will ever get justice.

“I just can’t believe that we’re at the 50th anniversary and we’re sitting here looking for the same answers, still asking the same questions,” she said.

“I’ve been campaigning for 33 years for truth and for justice. We won’t get justice now because I’d say anybody who was involved is either dead or too old to be sent to prison.”

Aidan Shields, whose mother Maureen was killed on Talbot Street, said identifying his mother in a morgue hours after the blast is something no-one should live through.

Mr Shields, who is on the committee for Justice for the Forgotten and director of the Pat Finucane centre, said: “On the day of the bombs, my mother was working in Fairview and my father worked in Guineys.

“Mammy came in to surprise him (and collect him) as there was a bus strike at the time and she parked the car around the corner on Gardiner Street and walked round to surprise him.

“My dad had pulled the shutters down on the shop a few minutes before 5.30pm, and that might have saved the lives of staff and customers who were at the shop at the time.

“But he didn’t know that his wife was outside the shop to collect him, and then he wouldn’t recognise her when he walked out of the shop either (after the blast).

“Much later that night, I went to the city morgue and I had to identify her and that was an experience that no-one should have to live through.”