6 February 2008: See today's issue of the Dundalk weekly newspaper The Argus for two brief reports of the recent two-day Dail debate on collusion held on 30-31 December 2007.

Dail debate on collusion factor in 1975 Crowe Street bombing Implement Barron report say families

This first report features comments by Maura McKeever, daughter of Dundalk bombing victim Jack Rooney, as well as remarks by Margaret Urwin of Justice or the Forgotten.

Dail debate on collusion factor in 1975 Crowe Street bombing 'State failed' the victims. 

This second report features remarks made by Foreign Affairs Minister, Dermot Ahern, who is a TD for Louth and a native of Dundalk. The Minister says the findings of the Oireachtas Report that widespread collusion had occurred in this and other cases were brought to the attention of the British Government.

Minister Ahern calls the British government's response to the revelations of the Barron reports and the Oireachtas reports both 'inadequate and unsatisfactory'.

Perhaps he and his government are not shouting loudly enough!

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19 December 2007: Today's 32nd anniversary of the Dundalk bombing was marked on Crowe Street, just a short distance from the site of the atrocity, with the laying of wreaths and the unveiling of a new memorial to Jack Rooney and Hugh Watters, the two men who lost their lives as a result of the bombing.

The monument features items that commemorate the lives of the two men who were murdered near this spot exactly 32 years ago. 

Bronze doves fly across a needle, commemorating Hugh Watters' life as a tailor, and a ladder and helmet commemorate Jack Rooney's working life as a fireman in Dundalk.

Click on the link above to find out more about this monument to Jack Rooney and Hugh Watters. 

See also: the report from today's issue of the local weekly Dundalk Democrat newspaper, which features the first published photograph of the new memorial and an interview with Maura McKeever, daughter of victim Jack Rooney. To find the article use this link>>>>.

See also a report Victims of Dundalk bombing being honoured in The Irish News, 19 December 2007.

See also: The Dundalk Democrat, 26 December 2007,  Relatives gather for unveiling of Dundalk bomb memorial

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12 December 2007: See today's issue of the local weekly The Argus for story healined : Memorial for Crowe Street bomb victims

The Argus reports that a specially commissioned sculpture is being erected beside the Town Hall, close to where Jack Rooney and Hugh Watters lost their lives.

The sculpture, entitled "Free Spirit" by Dublin artist Leo Higgins, has been funded by the Remembrance Commission.

See more about this new memorial to Jack Rooney and Hugh Watters above in reports from The Dundalk Democrat and The Irish News.

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28 November 2007: In yet another sensational indictment of British state collusion in sectarian murder in Ireland the European Court of Human Rights, at Strasbourg, has upheld a case taken by the families of eight south Armagh victims of the notorious UVF Glenanne Gang from the mid-1970s.

Though the Rooney and Watters families are not directly involved, it is to be hoped that this move will finally force Britain to come clean with the truth behind the Dundalk bombing and other murderous outrages involving state collusion with loyalists in the border area.

The families of eight murdered men had said the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) did not properly examine British security force involvement in a number of terror attacks, which left more than 100 people dead on both sides of the border. They can now justifiably claim they have been vindicated.

On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights said alleged security force collusion in the murders was not properly investigated.

The cases related to the deaths of Colm McCartney, who was murdered at Altnamackin in August 1975; Trevor Brecknell, who was murdered at Donnelly’s Bar, Silverbridge in December 1975; John, Brian and Anthony Reavey, murdered at Whitecross and Joseph, Barry and Declan O’Dowd murdered near Gilford on the same evening as the Reavey brothers in January 1976 and the wounding of Michael McGrath in a gun attack at the Rock Bar, Keady in June 1976.

Though the Dundalk victims are not directly involved in this case it should be remembered that the Dundalk bombing and the Silverbridge attack, in which three people died, were committed by members of the same gang on the same day, 19 December 1975.

The cases were taken to Strasbourg following the failure of the British Government to properly investigate detailed allegations made by a former member of the RUC, John Weir, about security force collusion.

Weir is a former RUC sergeant. He was convicted for the murder of Catholic shopkeeper William Strathearn in April 1977.

Eight years ago, he claimed to have been a member of the loyalist gang which carried out these and other murders. He said the gang consisted of members of the RUC, UDR and the UVF.

He said a farmhouse owned by another police officer was used as a base from which to carry out a series of murders. Weir has named those he claims were involved in the Dundalk bombing among many other attacks, including fellow members of the RUC and the UDR.

The RUC launched an investigation, but did not even bother to interview Weir, who now lives in Africa, as he was said not to be a credible witness.

The relatives say their cases account for just a fraction of the killings carried out by the gang - and they want the British government to admit that members of the RUC and UDR were part of it.

The families of the eight victims involved in the European case said they want to meet the Public Prosecution Service in Belfast to find out why members of the gang were not prosecuted despite their identities being known as far back as 1978.

The Pat Finucane Centre's Alan Bracknell - whose father was one of three shot dead at Silverbridge on 19 December 1975 - said it could not be the end of the matter.

"There does need to be a proper independent investigation of John Weir's allegations, " he said.

It is already apparent that the British government is adopting the well practised art of saying nothing. about these latest shocking allegations coming from Strasbourg. The silence is truly deafening!

For further information about this major development click on this link>>> where we feature a news report from the Irish-American Information Service and press releases from the Pat Finucane Centre and the families' legal representatives.

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31 August 2007: In a statement issued by the Derry-based Pat Finucane Centre it is revealed that the British Ministry of Defence has agreed to temporarily withdraw and amend its controversial military analysis of Operation Banner, the British Army codename for operations in the Six Counties between August 1969 and July 31 2007.

 Stephanie English of the PFC explained;

“The decision was prompted by a complaint we lodged on behalf of the family of Derry teenager Daniel Hegarty who was shot dead by British soldiers during Operation Motorman in the early hours of July 31 1972 in the Creggan estate, Derry. In July this year the Pat Finucane Centre alerted the media and public to the existence of the military document and highlighted a number of serious errors and gaps in the document. These included a reference to Operation Motorman where it was claimed that Daniel Hegarty, an unarmed 15 year teenager, was a ‘terrorist’. We wrote to Defence Minister Des Brown in July and called for the document to be withdrawn and the reference to Daniel Hegarty corrected. We pointed out that (then NIO Minister) Des Brown had actually written to the Hegarty family in 2003 and had expressly clarified that “neither I nor the Government have ever said that Daniel was a terrorist.”

This represents one small victory for one family that was deeply distressed by remarks published in this British army document. It does not as yet represent success for all of the families affected by the document's inaccuracies, distortions and lies. 

It should be remembered that the document falsely implies that the victims of the Dundalk bombing and other loyalist attacks died as the result of a sectarian feud between the IRA and loyalists!

There can be no such justification for the Dundalk bombing!

It is therefore to be hoped that any revision of this disgraceful British army document also includes the removal of offensive remarks written about the victims of sectarian murder in south Armagh and north Louth as referred to below on 6 July. 

There must be no attempt, by the British army or anyone else, to rewrite the history of events which included the sectarian murder of Jack Rooney and Hugh Watters in Dundalk in December 1975.

To read the Pat Finucane Centre's latest statement on this matter in full just click on this link>>>.

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9 July 2007: Please read the following statement issued today by the Derry-based Pat Finucane Centre in response to the recently revealed British Ministry of Defence document that attempts to rewrite history at the expense of the victims of the Dundalk bombing and other acts of British state terror in Ireland.

The statement includes the following demand:

We demand the immediate retraction of these comments which represent nothing less than a rewriting of history by an organisation whose members in fact instigated and participated in the incidents referred to. To refer to the murders which occurred during those weeks as resulting from a “particularly vicious feud … in County Armagh between South Armagh PIRA and North Armagh UVF” is a gross misrepresentation of the facts...

Statement from the families of those murdered at Donnelly’s Bar, Silverbridge, outside Kay’s Tavern, Dundalk and in the Reavey and O’Dowd homes.

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6 July 2007: Revealed today for the first trime, in a statement issued by the Pat Finucane Centre, Derry, is the existence of a British Ministry of Defence document titled Operation Banner-An Analysis of Military Operations in Northern Ireland which makes disgraceful remarks about the deaths of Jack Rooney, Hugh Watters and other victims of loyalist murder gangs comprising of members of the RUC and UDR under direction from the RUC special branch and British military intelligence.

Since our loved ones died in the first of a series of co-ordinated attacks between 19 December 1975 and January 4 1976, we are justifiably shocked and angered at comments contained in the document alleging that Jack and Hugh were victims of an alleged IRA-UVF "feud":

At paragraph 234 the following claim is made;     

 

Sectarian killing had become common, but a particularly vicious feud erupted in County Armagh between South Armagh PIRA and North Armagh UVF. The two organisations probably numbered less than 30 terrorists each. Between 19 December 1975 and 12 January 1976 over 40 people were killed and 100 wounded. The main effect of this feud was to raise tension and the perception of the political need to be doing something. The last vestiges of the Sunningdale Agreement died quietly and the bulk of the population tacitly accepted Direct Rule from Whitehall, which lasted until the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. 

Thus the British document rewrites history and neatly airbrushes away the sinister role of the British Army and the RUC and British intelligence services in this and other deadly loyalist attacks in the border area.

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25 February 2007: See report in today's Sunday Business Post newspaper, headlined British and UVF met 10 days after bombs killed 33, where journalist Colm Heatley reveals:

The British government held secret talks with the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) ten days after the May 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.

The meeting took place at Laneside, MI5's headquarters on the outskirts of Belfast, 12 days after the bombings which killed 33 people. At the time, the UVF was widely suspected of involvement in the bombings.

Since then, fresh evidence has emerged which implicates British military intelligence in the attack.

Instead, the meeting focused on the internal state of unionist and loyalist politics and the ongoing Ulster Workers Council strike, called to prevent power-sharing with nationalists. Details of the meeting were uncovered by the Derry based, Pat Finucane Centre.

The fact that no reference was made to the Dublin-Monaghan bombings during the meeting so soon after the attacks is considered unusual. . . 

In the light of recent damning revelations of British state collusion with loyalist killers in the 1970s and the early 1990s there is little to surprise in this latest revelation. 

However, that such a meeting could occur ten days after mass murder was perpetrated in Dublin and Monaghan is shocking to say the least. 

That the recent mass murder of 34 innocents did not even come up in the discussion is beyond belief!

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8 February 2007: See this report of the victims' families' meeting with Irish government ministers in Dublin yesterday, from the Ulster Tevevision (UTV) online news. 

Headlined Ahern calls for collusion closure the report quotes from Mr Dermot Ahern, Minister for Foreign Affairs and TD for Louth.

Closure must be given to families of victims killed in collusion-linked bombings and shootings before the Irish General Election expected in May or June, the Irish Government has said . . .

Mr Ahern said that the Government was waiting for a report by barrister Patrick MacEntee on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings - due on Tuesday.

Mr Ahern said: "He may ask for another extension, we hope not but obviously that is a matter for him. If we get that report in February, we will have to have a debate in the Oireachtas and then decide what to do.

"About 3,000 people were killed in the Troubles and each of those families have stories to tell.

"We are pushing the British very strongly on the need to give comfort to these families in some way, it may not satisfy everyone, but to draw a line under these cases once and for all.

"All of these cases are going to dog the peace process and (British-Irish) relations forever if we don't deal with them one way or another.

"There is a willingness to cooperate as much as possible. If you look at the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, it has gone on for nearly nine years and had half a billion pounds sterling spent on it."

He said the victims' families would be consulted before any action was taken.

UTV news also quotes from Margaret English, daughter of Dundalk bombing victim Hugh Watters, who said she believes the case of her family has been strengthened by the revelations in the Police Ombudsman's recent report on RUC collusion with UVF killers in north Belfast during the 1990s.

Click on the links above to view the UTV report in full.

See also The Irish News report Collusion: families meet Ahern

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7 February 2007:See this breaking news report from ireland.com, the website of The Irish Times newspaper, regarding today's victims families' meeting in Dublin with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

The report headlined Victims' Families Need Closure - Ahern, includes the following:

The daughter of a man killed in the 1975 bombing of Dundalk pub, Kay's Tavern, revealed that the incident still causes her nightmares. Margaret English, daughter of Hugh Watters, said she believes the case of her family has been strengthened by the revelations in the Police Ombudsman's recent report.

"It is shocking that the British government sent out agents to kill my dad. I find that unbelievable," she said. Mrs English also claimed that her family was badly treated by the Garda and the state over the incident, but added that the Taoiseach apologised for this today.

She agreed that there should be a compensation scheme set up for victims of collusion. "I still have nightmares. I remember running around the streets looking for my dad. There is a very human aspect. "At the time I was bitter but my mother said to me if I was bitter I would kill myself from the inside so I just shut everything out."

See also the following report in today's Dundalk Democrat  newspaper: Bombing relatives to meet Bertie 'Answers to our questions are sitting in files somewhere' for further comments from Maura McKeever, daughter of the other Dundalk bombing victim Jack Rooney.

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7 February 2007: See the following press release issued today by the Pat Finucane Centre, in Derry:

A number of families affected by collusion on both sides of the border are set to meet Taoiseach Mr Bertie Ahern TD at Government Buildings, Dublin at 1.45 today. Those meeting the Taoiseach include relatives of members of the Miami Showband, the 1975 Dundalk and Silverbridge bomb and gun attacks, members of the Reavey and O'Dowd families who each lost three family members in early 1976 and relatives of those killed in bomb attacks in Castleblaney and in Keady, S. Armagh in 1976. These and many other attacks in the 1970s in the Murder Triangle were carried out by a gang based at the farm of former RUC man James Mitchell in Glenanne, Armagh. The gang was made up of Portadown loyalists, members of the RUC Special Patrol Group and UDR members linked to Military Intelligence. . .

Click on the link above to read the complete statement.

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19 December 2006: Today is another sad milestone for the Rooney  and Watters families, marking the 31st anniversary of the bombing of Kay's Tavern Bar, Crowe Street, Dundalk.

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11 December 2006: A Newry branch of the Derry-based Pat Finucane Centre was officialy opened today by the murdered solicitor's widow, Geraldine, to coincide with International Human Rights Day.

The new office at Abbey Yard will be open on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and will provide advice and information for people concerned about collusion.

The new office's Manager is Alan Brecknell, whose father was murdered 19 December 1975 in the loyalist attack on Donnelly's Bar, Silverbridge.

Among those in attendance at the opening were Margaret English and Maura McKeever, daughters of the victims of the Dundalk bombing of 19 December 1975.

See report in The Newry Democrat, 12 December 2006: Widow opens Newry's Pat Finucane Centre

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6 December 2006: See the following special reports on the Oireachtas Committee report on the Dundalk bombing by local journalist Anne Marie Eaton from the weekly Dundalk Democrat newspaper. 

The reports include comments by Margaret English and Maura McKeever, daughters of the two men who were murdered by loyalists in collusion with British forces in December 1975.

Taoiseach supports debate on collusion

Hope at last for victims families

Case gets attention it deserves

Truth must emerge

See also further excellent coverage of the Oireachtas Report on the Dundalk bombing in the The Argus (Dundalk), 6 December 2006. The reports are headlined 'News Special Report of Independent Commission of Inquiry into Dundalk Bombing':

International Terrorism Can UK now legitimately refuse to co-operate with investigation in the light of 9/11 and London bomb?

'Authorities in the Republic should have been more vigorous to bring perpetrators to justice' Principal conclusions of the Inquiry

A Culture of secrecy existed together with a grudging handing over of information

'Irish Govt. guilty of worse crime than bombers - they covered up'

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30 November 2006: See these further press reports about the sensational oireachtas report that was published yesterday in Dublin:

The Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland edition): Brits did help kill eighteen civilians Thatcher knew of collusion says report into atrocities

The Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland edition): Massacre of the innocents

The Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland edition): (Editorial) Collusion: The truth

The Irish Daily Mail: Butchered by the British Oireachtas report finds damning evidence of collusion between UK security forces and loyalist terrorists in string of atrocities Now British must tell us full truth Taoiseach: Report is 'a matter of most serious concern'

The Irish Daily Mail: Dundalk pub bomb horror

The Irish Daily Mail: Comment: Britain must own up to its role in dirty war

The Irish Daily Star: Brits colluded with loyalists in terror reign Justice committee's damning report into murders

The Irish Daily Star (Editorial Comment): Tell us the truth

The Irish Examiner: Government backs report on collusion in North

The Irish Examiner: The nine attacks — a litany of terror and death

The Irish Examiner: ‘What we have heard today are things we have known for years’

The Irish Independent: British colluded in 'butchery'

The Irish News: Families welcome collusion findings

The Irish Times: London must co-operate on collusion inquiries - Ahern

The Irish Times: 'Widespread' collusion by British forces behind atrocities

The Irish Times: Remit: the atrocities covered

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29 November 2006: See this e-mail news bulletin from the highly respected Derry-based human rights group The Pat Finucane Centre on today's publication of the Oireachtas committee's report on the fourth Barron Report on the Dundalk bombing and a number of other murderous attacks around the same time - including Silverbridge, Dublin Airport, Castleblayney, the Miami Showband and the Reavey and O'Dowd families.

This latest oireachtas report appears to have gone further than previous reports in confronting the British government on the issue of RUC and UDR/British Army collusion with loyalist killers in these various attacks.

The Pat Finucane Centre's bulletin reads:

Like the recent International Report on Collusion, this Oireachtas Report is a damning indictment of the British government and its various forces in Ireland who were actively involved in collusion with loyalist killers or perhaps even the instigation of sectarian murder on both sides of the Irish border during the 1970s.

The oireachtas committee's report can be downloaded as a .pdf file from the oireachtas website.

See also early media reports from the http://www.breakingnews.ie/: Britain 'Colluded Over Murders In Republic' and British security forces 'colluded in international terrorism'

See also the following reports from:

 ireland.com: Barron finds British collusion in attacks

The Irish Independent: British and loyalists 'colluded in bombing'

The Daily Telegraph: Ahern call for ‘collusion’ inquiry

Ulster Television News online: Green Party demand public inquiry

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29 November 2006: See today's issue of The Argus (Dundalk), for an article headlined A high level of collusion found in Dundalk bombing, looking forward to today's publication of the Oireachtas committee's final report on the Dundalk bombing:

A high level of collusion existed between the British government and loyalist paramilitaries responsible for the 1975 Dundalk bombing, an Oireachtas report set to be published today (Wednesday) has found.

This is the final report from the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Womens' Rights, which investigated the Dundalk bombing, and is expected to confirm what the families of the Dundalk men who were killed in that bombing, had long suspected.

Margaret English, whose father Hugh Watters was killed in the blast, said that although this was certainly a breakthrough in their campaign for the truth to be told about the bombing at Kay’s Tavern on Crowe Street, the families were asking ‘What is going to be done now?” 

She also expressed her shock at hearing the findings of the report on the news on Monday morning, and having to make her own enquiries about its publication. . .

Click on the link above to read the rest of the article.

See also in The Argus: "Christmas spoiled forever" for Maura, reporting an interview with Maura McKeever, daughter of bomb victim Jack Rooney

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26 November 2006: See this report by journalist Colm Heatley from thepost.ie: The Sunday Business Post online: Report Unearths Loyalist And British Collusion On Bombings. 

The report announces the publication this week of the Oireachtas Justice committee's report on the Dundalk bombing and other loyalist atrocities in the 1970s.

The report begins:

Britain colluded with loyalist gangs responsible for three bombings in the Republic in the 1970s, including a bomb at Dublin Airport that killed one man, an Oireachtas report has found.

Britain colluded with loyalist gangs responsible for three bombings in the Republic in the 1970s, including a bomb at Dublin Airport that killed one man, an Oireachtas report has found.

The joint Oireachtas committee report into the bombings at the airport and Kay's Tavern in Dundalk, Co Louth, in 1975 and a bombing in Castleblayney in Monaghan in 1976 will be published on Wednesday. . .

To read more from The Sunday Business Post's report click on the link above.

See also: The Irish Examiner, 27 November 2006: Second collusion report pressurises Government - another report by Colm Heatley

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15 November 2006: See today's issue of the local weekly Dundalk Democrat for a report headlined:'We just want the truth' New investigation into 1975 bombing - a report of a recent appearance of PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde before an Oireachtas Committee inquiring into the Dundalk bombing and other cases; and including comments from Maura McKeever, a daughter of Dundalk bombing victim Jack Rooney.

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14 November 2006:The following is from an e-mail news bulletin produced by the local LMFM Radio. 

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13 November 2006: The following is from an e-mail bulletin produced by the Derry-based Pat Finucane Centre.

The international report on collusion can be downloaded directly by clicking on this link.>>>

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7 November 2006: See the following further press coverage of the recent international report on British state collusion with sectarian killers active on both sides of the border during the 1970s:

The Irish Daily Mirror: Shock report alleges high-level collusion Officials 'had information on 25 atrocities' RUC & Army 'helped loyalists carry out. . 74 MURDERS

The Irish Daily Mirror: So many victims

The Irish Examiner: Evidence found of British collusion in bombings

The Guardian: RUC and army 'backed killers'

The Irish-American Information Service e-mail bulletin: PRESSURE ON BRITISH TO INVESTIGATE COLLUSION EVIDENCE