22 April 1999:

FIRST MEETING WITH TAOISEACH
Families will press Taoiseach for Inquiry Tonight 22 April 1999

Families of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings and many of those who were injured on 17 May 1974 are travelling today from all over Ireland for a long awaited meeting with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. At the meeting, the first between the relatives and a serving Taoiseach in 25 years, the families will be pressing for an independent Tribunal of Inquiry into the bombings.

"It is imperative that such a Tribunal of Inquiry be established", says Tim Grace, whose wife Breda was killed in the Talbot Street Explosion. "Sensitive new information, which has been furnished to the Taoiseach and the Garda Commissioner about alleged involvement in the bombings by members of the RUC and British Security Forces, makes an Inquiry essential. Furthermore, new revelations in respect of the handling of crucial forensic evidence at the time is deeply disquieting. Nothing now, short of a Tribunal of Inquiry, will satisfy the families and the wounded."

The response by Mr. Ahern to the families call for an Inquiry will be keenly felt. In the past he has said that he would open the Dublin /Monaghan files if and when he became Taoiseach. The majority of those murdered on the day, including a French and Italian citizen, died in Mr. Ahern's own political constituency.

The meeting is scheduled for 7.15pm at Government Buildings.