Bombing cover-up charged

Bombing cover-up charged

By Frank Noakes

LONDON — A program aired on British television on July 7 claims that suspects in the bombing of Dublin and Monaghan in 1974 were never interviewed despite being known to the police.

The two bombs were exploded without any warning by the Ulster Volunteer Force, a loyalist terrorist organisation, killing 33 people.

The program claims that "well-placed sources within the UVF, RUC [Royal Ulster Constabulary, the northern police] and the British army at the time believe the explosives, training and planning for the mission were given by elements of the British security forces".

Co-producer Glyn Middleton says, "But for some reason there were few serious attempts to bring [the bombers] to justice". These revelations are not new, yet they remain to be fully investigated. The reason is obvious.

Labour MP Ken Livingstone has levelled the same charges against the security forces in public on many occasions in the past. Earlier this year, writing in the Guardian, he said: "There is little doubt left that British intelligence arranged the bombing of Dublin so that revulsion at the slaughter would be blamed on the IRA and thus speed the [Eire] Republic's own Prevention of Terrorism Act through a reluctant Dail [parliament]."

From GLW issue 107