CALL FOR FULL INVESTIGATION REPEATED AS MONAGHAN REMEMBERS 1974 BOMBING

Members and officials of the Monaghan Municipal District, members of the former Monaghan Town Council and local residents gathered before the Church Square memorial just before 9 am on Tuesday, May 17 last for a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the 42nd anniversary of the 1974 bomb attack in Monaghan Town.
Seven lives were lost in the incident, which occurred on the same day as the explosion of three other car bombs in Dublin. In all, 33 people and an unborn child were killed in the attacks, which were the deadliest in any single day of the Troubles.
Ceremonies in Dublin also marked Tuesday’s anniversary.
On Tuesday evening, members of the Old Monaghan Society observed a solemn minute’s silence for the victims of the 1974 town attack at the outset of a function to honour noted local historian and genealogist Theo McMahon.
Fianna Fáil T.D. for Cavan/Monaghan Brendan Smith this week repeated his call on the British Government to remove all obstacles to full and proper investigations into the bombings.
“Over the past number of years in meetings that I had with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Theresa Villiers and also with the British Ambassador, I raised each time with them the need for the British Government to respond positively to the unanimous call of Dáil Éireann for British co-operation in a full and a proper investigation of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings,” Deputy Smiith said in a statement.
“Motions were unanimously passed in Dáil Éireann in 2008 and 2011 calling for such co-operation. I have repeatedly called on the British Government to give access to an eminent legal person to all papers and files relating to the Dublin-Monaghan bombings of the 17th May 1974 which resulted in the deaths of 33 innocent people.
“Every obstacle must be removed by the British Government to ensure full and proper investigations are undertaken in respect of these bombings and the perpetrators of such crimes need to be brought to justice. The least the victims and the families of all these atrocities deserve is the truth about who carried out these murderous deeds 42 years ago.”
Deputy Smith told The Northern Standard that he had recently tabled further Parliamentary Questions in Dáil Éireann on this issue regarding the need for the Government to constantly pursue with the …..