RTE, 05 August
1999:
Relatives of 1974 bomb victims demand public inquiry
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Relatives of victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings have demanded that any inquiry into the incidents be public. They have taken issue with the Victims Commissioner, John Wilson, whose report has recommended that there should be an inquiry, but that it should be in private leading to a published report. Relatives insisted that only a public inquiry would remove the suspicion that there had been a cover-up.
The Government is expected to act on a call to set up an independent inquiry into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings. The proposal is understood to be among the recommendations made in the first report of the Commission on Victims of Northern-related Violence. The report suggests that the inquiry should be conducted in private, by a retired Judge of the Supreme Court and that the findings should be made public.
The Commission was appointed by the Government last year and is headed by the former Tánaiste, John Wilson. 33 people were killed and more than 300 were injured in the bombings. No-one has ever been charged in connection with the attacks, although the Ulster Volunteer Force admitted in 1993 that it had carried them out. It has been alleged that members of the security forces in the North were involved in these incidents.
Relatives of the victims of the bombings have continued to draw attention to the fact that nobody was ever arrested or charged for the bombing - calling it "the forgotten massacre." Their efforts were rewarded earlier this year, when the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the Minister for Justice, John O Donoghue, signalled their intention to have the inquiry into the bombings.
In a separate development, Mr Wilson is understood to have recommended that there should also be an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of 47-year-old Seamus Ludlow, a bachelor with no paramilitary connections, who was found shot dead north of Dundalk in 1976. Last year, three former UDR men were arrested by the RUC and questioned about Mr Ludlow's death and a file on the murder has been sent by the RUC to the North's Director of Public Prosecutions. Mr Wilson suggests that the report of the Ludlow inquiry should not be published until any criminal proceedings are dealt with.
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The
Irish Times, 6 August 1999: Private
inquiry likely into 1974 bombings
Victims angry at proposal
The
Irish News, 7 August 1999: Ludlows
call for public inquiry
The
Dundalk Democrat, 7 August 1999: Ludlow
murder inquiry report "A place and a name"
The
Sunday Tribune, 8 August 1999: The
case that is not going to go away
The
Examiner, 10 August 1999: Report
recommends inquiries into Ludlow murder, Dundalk bombing
The
Dundalk Democrat, 14 August 1999: "Ludlow
inquiry must be public" - says Arthur Morgan
The
Dundalk Democrat, 14 August 1999: "Dublin/Monaghan
bombings inquiry should be public" says O Caolain
The
Dundalk Democrat, 21 August 1999: "A
deafening silence"
Copyright
© 2002 the Ludlow family. All rights reserved.
Revised: July 27, 2002
