Govt faces legal action over response to collusion probe

A lawyer representing families of 18 victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings has warned the Irish Government that they will take legal action if gardaí do not cooperate fully with an inquiry into allegations of collusion by RUC officers.

The Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland (PONI) is examining the activities of a notorious loyalist group, known as the Glenanne Gang, which has been linked to more than 120 murders during the 1970s.

Based in south Armagh, it consisted of members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, RUC and the Ulster Defence Regiment.

In addition to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974 its members have been implicated in the Miami Showband massacre in 1975, as well as bombings in Belturbet, Dundalk and Castleblayney, and dozens of murders in Northern Ireland.

Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson has confirmed that An Garda Síochána has not responded to requests for access to intelligence material about the attacks in Dublin and Monaghan in which 34 people died, including an unborn child.

No one has been charged in connection with the bombings.

Relatives of the victims, and many others, believe the killers were assisted and protected by members of the British security forces.

Lawyers for victims of the bombings have accused An Garda Síochána of hindering the ombudsman’s inquiry, a claim rejected by Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin.

Gardaí have provided intelligence material to an independent police review into the alleged activities of the Glenanne Gang, codenamed Operation Denton.

But they have not responded to several requests for the same material from the Police Ombudsman who is investigating allegations of collusion and failings in RUC investigations into killings linked to the gang.

The material was released to Operation Denton after Minister for Justice Helen McEntee issued a special directive authorising Garda Commissioner Drew Harris to share the information.

Head of Operation Denton, former Police Scotland chief constable Iain Livingstone, told RTÉ’s Prime Time last month that it is not a question of if there was collusion between members of the security forces and the gang, but how much.

The ombudsman is running a parallel investigation into the collusion claims, codenamed Operation Newham.

In a letter to lawyer Kevin Winters, Ms Anderson’s office confirms that “an appropriate request was raised by this office to AGS (An Garda Síochána) but no response was received.”

It adds: “It is impossible to provide an assessment of the impact of information that the Police Ombudsman has not seen.”

Mr Winters said the absence of the garda material makes it impossible for the ombudsman to conduct a proper inquiry.

“That’s a very significant deficit because without that information we would say that the Police Ombudsman’s report is really bereft of significant detail, and the people who will lose out in fact are the families, the families of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings,” he said.

The solicitor has sent letters, seen by RTÉ News, to Mr Martin and McEntee asking them to intervene.

Mr Martin has been highly critical of the British government for ending investigations into killings during the Troubles and has said several times that material held by authorities in the Republic of Ireland should be made available to investigations into killings and allegations of collusion.

“Micheál Martin, on the anniversary of the Dublin Monaghan bombings called on the British government to make available all the information and evidence and material that they have in relation to that atrocity and that was an appropriate and proportionate thing to do,” Mr Winters said.

“But he needs to step up here and look at this problem. In the Republic of Ireland there is material held by An Garda Síochána that has not been made available to the Police Ombudsman.

“There is no reason for the ombudsman to be deprived of the same information that has been made available to Operation Denton.

“It doesn’t make sense to do, on the one hand, call out the British government and not do it in relation to what’s happening in their own backyard.”

The Tánaiste told RTÉ News that he has not yet seen the letter and expressed surprised at the claim that gardaí have not cooperated with the ombudsman’s investigation.

Mr Martin said the Government and the Department of Foreign Affairs have been very engaged with the families of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, and is cooperating with the Operation Denton investigation.

“I don’t quite understand the allegation that has been made, and why that sort of specific allegation hasn’t been made in a more upfront way with Government,” he said.

Mr Winters has also written to Ms McEntee and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris warning that legal proceedings will be issued within 14 days if there is no commitment to make the material available.

“We call on you now at this late stage to implement an appropriate mechanism for provision of information in the possession of An Garda Síochána to PONI for the purposes of facilitating Operation Newham,” the letter to Minister McEntee says.

“If you or other party named above [the Garda Commissioner] do not reply within 14 days proposing that you will remedy the breaches herein and setting out a process to adequately deal with these issues, our instructions are to issue such legal proceedings as clients are advised to pursue.”

Mr Martin rejected the suggestion that gardaí have not cooperated.

“My understanding is that the Minister for Justice and the Garda Commissioner have been cooperating with the Police Ombudsman in Northern Ireland in relation to these issues.

“That is an issue I would be concerned about, we would talk obviously to the Minister for Justice as my department doesn’t obiously oversee An Garda Síochána,” he said.

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher told RTÉ’s Prime Time last month that he will not oppose attempts by the families of those killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings to take civil action in courts in Northern Ireland.

His predecessor, Simon Byrne, and the British security services fought a six-year legal battle in an attempt to block the release of files to lawyers acting for families of victims of the Glenanne Gang.