The latter killed 34 people including an unborn baby and also left more than 300 people injured, when three no-warning car bombs exploded in Dublin and a fourth in Monaghan town on Friday afternoon, May 17, 1974.
That came less than two years after two teenagers and eight other people were injured when three bombs exploded in Belturbet, Co Cavan; Clones, Co Monaghan and Pettigo, Co Donegal within an hour of each other on December 28, 1972.
A car bomb that exploded outside Farrelly’s Bar and McGowan’s Drapery on Main Street in Belturbet resulted in the deaths of Patrick Stanley (16), of Clara, Co Offaly, and Geraldine O’Reilly (15), of Drumacon, Belturbet.
The atrocities have become a regular topic for discussion on the floor of the Dáil, exacerbated by the introduction of controversial legislation last September in the Houses of Commons.
The law, or Northern Ireland Legacy Bill, sought to effectively end prosecutions related to The Troubles.
In July, Britain’s new Labour led government announced plans to scrap an amnesty scheme for ex-soldiers and militants involved in decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
Speaking in the Dáil, Cavan-Monaghan Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith branded the law as a “deplorable piece of legislation” and urgent government chiefs to remain “very vigilant” in order to ensure the British Government followed through on its promise.
The long serving TD went further by intimating Westminster officials could do more in providing full assistance to the investigations into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings alongside those in Cavan half a century ago.
“I have raised the lack of co-operation with the British Government on the investigation into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings on many occasions in the House,” he said.
“That was the day on which there was the most serious loss of life on this island during the Troubles. We also need full co-operation with regard to the investigation into the Belturbet bombing on 28 December 1972, when two young teenagers were killed.
“We all know that act was perpetrated by the UVF, but nobody has been brought to justice.
“Those inquiries must be given more momentum.”
