As we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the 1974 bombings in Dublin and Monaghan,
Kieran Allen explains why it’s still important to reveal the truth and end the cover-ups
about these events.
The Stardust families had to wait over forty years to get the truth about the deaths of their
loved ones. When it finally came, the dark side of the Irish state was revealed. The same
type of cover up is at play as we approach the 50th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan
bombings.
At 5.30pm on Friday, May 17 1974, three no-warning car bombs exploded in the centre of
Dublin, killing 26 people and injuring 100 in Parnell Street, Talbot Street and South Leinster
Street. Ninety minutes later in Monaghan town, seven people were killed when a car bomb
exploded outside Greacen’s Bar in Church Square.
Nobody was ever charged for these murders even though the loyalist paramilitary group,
the UVF, claimed responsibility years later.
The main reason is that both the Irish state and the British state engaged in a massive cover-
up that persists to this day.
The British Cover-Up
Let’s take the British state. In 2000, an independent commission of inquiry into the
bombings was set up and reported in 2003. The British government refused to co-operate
and Judge Barron stated that their reluctance to make original documents available and
London’s refusal to supply other information on security grounds had resulted in the scope
of his report being limited.
Despite the refusal of the British to cooperate, the Barron report pointed to a high level of
collusion between British military intelligence and unionist paramilitaries.
It quoted from a letter written by Colin Wallace, a former British military intelligence officer,
on August 14 1975: “There is good evidence that the Dublin-Monaghan bombings were a
reprisal for the Irish Government’s role in bringing about the (Stormont) Executive.
A joint Oireachtas sub-committee assessed the report’s findings and stated that it was “in
no doubt that collusion between the British security forces and terrorists was behind many, if
not all, of the atrocities considered in this report”. It described the bomb attacks of May 17
1974 as “acts of international terrorism that were colluded in by the British security forces”.
The British military intelligence officer, Fred Holroyd, also claimed that British military
intelligence ran the unionist paramilitary gangs, “If you really want the truth, we were
running the organisations, hands off, because the leaders belonged to us.”
The journalist, Joe Tiernan, conducted an extensive investigation into the bombings, which
he published as a book, The Dublin Bombings and the Murder Triangle. He concluded that
“the 1974 attacks were planned and organised by senior officers in the army and RUC special
branch.”
The Political Context
There is a political context to all of this. In 1973, in response to a mass upsurge of the
nationalist community in the North, the British and Irish governments embarked on a power
sharing strategy. They wanted to bring ‘moderate’ nationalists into a new Stormont
Executive and give some symbolic recognition to their aspirations through the formation of
a Council of Ireland.
The response of loyalist paramilitaries was to launch the Ulster Workers Council strike. It
was in the midst of this strike, which was accompanied by widespread intimidation, that the
Dublin and Monaghan bombings took place.
Just like today, elements of the Tory party were in open connivance with hard-line loyalists,
who did not want any sign of weakening of their old empire. This in turn gave the signal to
the RUC special branch and MI5 to work closely with the UVF. They made the decision to
spread a strategy of tension to the South in order to scare off its population from any
involvement in the North.
This was precisely the point which encouraged the Southern state to collude in the cover-
up.
The Irish Cover-Up
The Fine Gael Taoiseach, Liam Cosgrove, sought to blame republican activity for causing the
bombings. He said, “The government are as yet unaware of the identity of those responsible
for these crimes but everyone who has practised violence, or preached violence, must bear a
share of the responsibility for the outrages.”
His attorney general, Declan Costello, said it was “impossible to reach any definite
conclusion as to who might have been responsible for the explosions”, and suggested that
the IRA “bears a very heavy burden of responsibility”.
Within days of the bombing the Irish state carried out raids on the homes and premises of
republicans across the Twenty-Six Counties. The government refused to hold an official day
of mourning for the victims or establish a fund to assist their families.
The Garda investigation into the Dublin-Monaghan bombing was pathetic. Even the Barron
Commission condemned the Garda for ending their investigation too soon; for failing to
keep proper records; for allowing crucial files and photographs of suspects to go missing
and, failing to follow up leads. Shortly after the investigation ended, almost 600 exhibits,
including statements and photographs from the bombings enquiry, were piled on a bonfire
outside the headquarters of the Garda Technical Bureau in Kingsbridge, and disappeared
into the sky.
Parallels Today
The reality is that the Southern Irish state saw the revolt in the North as a threat to its own
stability. It was terrified that it might ‘spill over’ into a revolt against a regime that
rhetorically opposed partition but in reality did everything it could to shore it up.
The situation of the Dublin government is remarkable similar to regimes like that in Jordan
today. Officially, these too oppose Israel’s genocide but at the same time they co-operate
with the USA in protecting the Zionist state.
Two years before the Dublin-Monaghan bombing, the then Fianna Fail government
introduced the Offences against the State (Amendment) Act to allow for the jailing of
republican activists merely on the word of a Garda superintendent. They were faced with
huge opposition as a march of 5,000 people descended on the Dail.
Even Fine Gael threatened to vote against it on the grounds of defence of civil liberties. As
the crowd were marching, bombs went off in Sackville Place and outside Liberty Hall, killing
a bus driver and conductor. The bombings led Fine Gael to drop their opposition and
the draconian legislation was passed.
Strategy of Tension
So there was form to Southern collusion in a strategy of tension. Senior figures in the Gardai
saw the main enemy as republican subversion and looked on the activities of British
intelligence services with a benign eye. Just as many Arab states work closely with the
intelligence services of Israel, so too did senior Gardai come to regard British intelligence as
their friends.
Fifty years on from the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, it is time that pressure grows for
revealing the truth, the whole truth, and the role of both the British and Irish governments
in assisting another cover up.
