Evidence found of British collusion in bombings

By Colm Heatley

A panel of international investigators has revealed strong evidence of British Government collusion in the Dublin-Monaghan bombings.


For two years, investigators have been examining 25 separate incidents involving the murders of 76 people which occurred north and south of the Border during the Troubles.

They have concluded that members of the security forces — the former RUC and now defunct UDR — actively colluded with the loyalist UVF in dozens of sectarian murders of Catholics.

It will also be claimed that the British Government chose to ignore evidence of this from the early 1970s.

Investigators discovered that senior RUC members were reported as being “extremely close” to loyalist paramilitaries in 1975. But the warnings were ignored.

In 24 of the 25 cases probed, the panel found evidence of security forces’ collusion and recommended a public investigation be established by the British Government to examine the murders.

The panel released their findings in Belfast yesterday and the conclusions will also be discussed at a conference in Dublin today.

“As early as 1973, senior officials of the United Kingdom were put on notice of the danger — and indeed some of the facts — of sectarian violence by UDR soldiers using stolen UDR weapons and ammunition, and supported by UDR training and information,” part of the report stated.

“At least by 1975, senior officials were also informed that some RUC police officers were ‘very close’ to extremist paramilitaries.”

Thirty-three people were killed in the May 1974 Dublin-Monaghan bombings.

The British Government has refused to release files on the atrocities to the Irish Government.

Relatives of victims will give a response to the findings at a conference in Dublin this morning.

One case in which the panel determined collusion between the security forces and loyalist murder gangs was the July 1975 Miami Showband Massacre, when three of the band’s musicians were shot dead by a gang which included members of the UVF and UDR.

During its two-year investigation, initiated at the behest of the Pat Finucane Centre, investigators talked to PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde, two members of the loyalist gang who carried out some of the killings and relatives of the victims.