Justice at last for the forgotten victims of sectarian murder in Dundalk
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Justice at last for the forgotten victims of sectarian murder in Dundalk |
Magill Magazine article Sept. 2002 Collusion exposed by Oireachtas Committee
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The Dundalk Democrat, 7 February 2007: Bombing relatives to meet Bertie 'Answers to our questions are sitting in files somewhere' By Anne Marie Eaton The daughters of the Dundalk Bombing victims said they are hopeful this week that a meeting on Wednesday with An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will begin a process whereby those who did not prevent the death of their fathers will be "named and shamed". This is the first time that Mr Ahern will meet Maura McKeever and Margaret English, daughters of Jack Rooney and Hugh Watters who lost their lives in t bombing on Crowe Street on December 19, 1975. An Oireachtas Committee which investigated the findings of the Barron Report on the bombing stated that Gardai who had received a bomb warning in the days before it exploded on Crowe Street could have done more to prevent it The Committee also laid blame with the British Security Forces and their collusion with terrorists. Maura and Margaret are included in a delegation of victims families which will meet the Taoiseach on Wednesday afternoon, and speaking this this week Maura McKeever said that after waiting years to meet him, they will have a comprehensive list of questions for Mr Ahern. "We have a lot of hopes for this meeting but what we want is for the Taoiseach to get Tony Blair to answer a few questions for us and to get all those people who did not do their job, both north and south named and shamed. "They were well paid and they have retired with great pensions but they did not do their job." Maura said she believed the Taoiseach made their meeting a priority after the publication of an Independent Report on the atrocities. "The Oireachtas Committee was brilliant in what it did for us but there was no chance of a meeting with Bertie Ahern before that independent report was published and suddenly things began to move. "We met with the Taoiseach's secretary in Ballymascanlan before before Christmas where we gave an outline of the questions we wanted to put to the Taoiseach. But since then we have come up with more questions that we need to in light of O'Loan's report." "There is no point in saying to us that there are not answers and that today's Government are victims too, just like the PSNI would like people to think. "We are the victims and they have the answers to our questions sitting in files".
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