29 July 2004:

RESPONSE TO GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCEMENT OF NEW INQUIRY INTO
DUBLIN & MONAGHAN BOMBINGS

Justice for the Forgotten has been informed by the Government of its decision to establish yet another private inquiry into the Dublin & Monaghan bombings. The bereaved families and survivors have long since rejected private inquiries. In December 2003, following the publication of the Barron report, we stated that the time for private inquiries was over. It is a basic human right of the bereaved and injured that the Dublin & Monaghan bombings atrocity is examined in its entirety and in public.

In December 1999 we secured the agreement of the Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern and the Tánaiste, Ms Mary Harney, that any inquiry following the publication of the Barron report, would be public whether it be a Public Tribunal of Inquiry or a Public Oireachtas Committee Inquiry. It was never envisaged that any further inquiry would be behind closed doors and immune to public scrutiny.

We are calling on the Government to rescind this decision and, in the forthcoming talks on the Peace Process, to gain agreement from the British Government to establish a joint Public Tribunal of Inquiry into the bombings. We have had five long years of partial and fragmented inquiries. It is now long past the time that the Government lived up to its commitment to bring truth of the Dublin & Monaghan bombings into the open.

This announcement constitutes a betrayal of trust. We cannot recommend the participation of the families in another private process. Why does the Government persist in seeking to hide the truth?

For further details please contact:

Greg O'Neill, Solicitor: 087 23 93 175

Bernie McNally, Chairperson: 087 64 69 685

Margaret Urwin, Secretary: 087 223 73 38