The Irish Examiner, 27 November 2006

Second collusion report pressurises Government

By Colm Heatley

Pressure is mounting on the Government to hold a public inquiry into the 1974 Dublin-Monaghan bombings and a string of other loyalist attacks in the Republic, as a second report into British collusion with loyalists is due to be published.

An Oireachtas committee report into three separate bomb attacks in Dublin along with Dundalk, Co Louth and Castleblayney, Co Monaghan found evidence of collusion in all three attacks, which killed five people.

The attacks took place between 1975 and 1976.

The report, which will be published on Wednesday, is understood to have uncovered what one source close to the investigation described as “disturbing evidence of collusion”.

Last month, a panel of independent, international investigators found “strong and credible evidence” of British state collusion in 24 out of 25 cases it investigated, involving the deaths of 76 people.

The panel investigated a series of murders which took place in the early to mid-1970s and which are believed to be the work of a loyalist group known as the ‘Glennane Gang’.

Earlier this month, a former police colleague of Chief Superintendent Harry Breen, the highest ranking RUC man to be killed by the IRA during the Troubles, claimed Breen was involved with the gang.

Margaret Urwin, of the victims’ group Justice For the Forgotten, said the Government needs to hold a public inquiry into the 1970s murders immediately.

“The victims want to know the truth about what happened in Dublin-Monaghan and in the other attacks which took place,” Mrs Urwin said.

“This can only be done through a public inquiry.”

However, the only public inquiry which the state has agreed to undertake is into the killing of Breen, who is linked to loyalist paramilitaries, and his colleague Bob Buchanan who were ambushed by the IRA in March 1989.

The inquiry will not investigate Breen’s paramilitary links but will instead focus on whether or not a member of the gardaí tipped off the IRA about the two RUC men’s movements on the day they were killed.