Families
of the victims of the Dundalk and Dublin Airport bombings complained
yesterday that the bombers were treated better than they were.
As
a report into a number of related loyalist atrocities in the mid-1970s
came to no firm conclusions, the victims' families said they were
neglected by the State for three decades.
The
report by Judge Henry Barron into the bombing outside Kay's Tavern in
Dundalk in 1975, was published by an Oireachtas committee yesterday.
Hugh
Watters, a 60-year-old tailor, and Jack Rooney, a 62-year-old lorry
driver, were killed by the bomb but no one was ever brought to
justice.
The
names of some of those believed to have been involved in the bombs
were deleted from the report before publication.
But
Mr Watters' daughter, Margaret English, said the victims were shown
little respect over the past 30 years. "I actually think the
bombers are treated better than we are. It is absolutely disgusting
that citizens of the State were treated in this way," she said.
Mrs
English complained that her family didn't receive help from the gardai
when they held a commemorative event to mark the 30th anniversary of
the bomb last year.
"It
was held at 6.22pm, the time when Daddy died, but the gardai wouldn't
even stop the traffic for us," she said.
She
also said the committee only informed them about the launch of the
report a day earlier.
This
view was backed up by Monica Hayes, whose husband, John Francis Hayes,
was killed by a bomb at Dublin Airport in 1975.
"We've
all been ignored. I had a three-year-old boy and 11-year-old twins and
I had to bring them up alone. You can never overcome anything like
that" she said.
The
report says allegations of collusion between the British security
forces and loyalists were not possible to prove as it couldn't be
established who carried out the bombings.
The
judge said: "There is no evidence that senior members of the
security forces were involved in any way in the bombing."
The
report was the fourth and final one by Judge Barron into atrocities
carried out south of the border involving allegations of collusion.
The
Oireachtas committee is going to hold hearings into this latest report
in the Autumn. The Commission of Investigation Inquiry into the Dublin
and Monaghan bombings in 1974 is now being completed by barrister
Paddy MacEntee.
Expressing
his sympathy to the families, the committee chairman, Sean Ardagh,
said they would get the chance to be heard in late September.
Fionnan
Sheahan