All-Party Motion on Barron Report

        Remarks of Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Motion.  Today we saw history made, as a British Monarch travelled for the first time to an independent Ireland.  I had the privilege of  greeting Queen Elizabeth in the Garden of Remembrance and being present when she laid a wreath in memory of Irish patriots who gave their lives to secure Irish freedom from Britain.  It was a sight that even a few years ago would have been unimaginable.  It is right to also acknowledge the powerful symbolism of our President and Queen Elizabeth standing to attention as the Army Band played the National Anthems of both our countries. The events of today are a poignant and significant reminder of just how intertwined is the history of our two countries. 

I know that the vast majority of people in our State welcome Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip as our visitors and our guests and also welcome the enormous changes that have taken place on this island.  The spirit of reconciliation and friendship can be starkly contrasted with the violent and destructive  conduct displayed by a small number of unrepresentative and self appointed groups who wish to turn the clock back to a past no reasonable or thinking person wishes to revisit.  It is regrettable that the threat posed by this small number of individuals who have no respect for the democratic will of the Irish people required that a major security operation be mounted for the protection of our distinguished visitors and to ensure today’s events and those planned for the rest of this week occur without disruption.  I have little doubt that there are thousands of Dubliners who would have preferred to be on our streets on this historic day to welcome our visitors rather than have only the opportunity to view the days events on their television screens.  It is entirely unacceptable that the threat posed by the conduct of a tiny minority prevented this being possible. 

In Dorset Street in Dublin this afternoon we witnessed thugs throwing rocks, bottles and missiles at members of the Garda Síochána.  An Garda Síochána and our Defence Forces have also had to rapidly respond in recent days to reports relating to various devices being placed in different locations and to hoax bomb threats.  I want in particular to put on record my congratulations and my thanks to the Garda Commissioner and the Chief of Staff and all of the members of An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces who have prepared for this historic occasion and with great competence and dignity fulfilled their duty.  I think all Members of this House should express their pride in both An Garda Síochána and the Defence Forces and in the manner in which they have conducted themselves.

  
The subject of tonight’s debate is of course another reminder of the tangled and tragic history of our two islands.

Thirty-seven years ago today, and just a few hundred yards from where we speak, three bombs exploded as people around Dublin were making their way home from work and looking forward to the weekend.  Around ninety minutes later another bomb exploded outside Greacen’s pub in Monaghan Town. 

 
Thirty-three people lost their lives and an unborn baby was denied the chance to live.  Over a hundred people suffered injuries.  The families who were bereaved, and those who were injured, bear some scars which can be seen but others which they have borne with quiet dignity since that day.  Thirty seven years have passed and in some cases the pain may have eased, but it has not gone away.  They still have questions about what happened to their loved ones, about why it happened and how it happened.  Other families who lost relatives in other attacks in the years between 1972 and 1976 were also left with questions which remained unanswered.

As this House is aware, the painstaking and detailed work of the late Judge Henry Barron provided the families with some of the answers they sought, and a Joint Committee of the Oireachtas provided the families with an opportunity to have their voices heard.  Anyone who heard their accounts or has read them since could not fail to be moved.  A considerable amount of light was shed on what happened but vital questions remain unanswered.

As this Motion recalls, in July 2008, this House unanimously urged the British Government to allow access to documents.  To date this has not happened.  I know that many Deputies in this House have raised this issue with our counterparts in Westminster and that they will continue to do so.  Since this Government took office, the Tánaiste has raised the issue with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland at their first meeting in Dublin last month.  The Taoiseach will also raise this matter with Prime Minister Cameron tomorrow, as he has done in previous meetings.

Speaking in this House on 21 May 1974, the then Taoiseach Liam Cosgrave said "nothing I can say will adequately describe the feelings of shock and horror caused by the destruction of human life and hope."  Unfortunately the shock and horror witnessed in Dublin and Monaghan on 17 May 1974 did not start on that day and it did not end until 1998.  Too many families across this island and in Britain suffered the loss of a loved one.  Over three thousand six hundred people’s lives were cut short. Many tens of thousands more suffered injuries.  In 1998, in referenda, North and South, on the Good Friday Agreement, the overwhelming majority of the people who share this island said loudly and clearly that the violence had to stop.  They said that no other families should suffer the pain and misery of losing a loved one.

 
Dealing with the legacy of the past is not an easy task, no simple formula of words can put things right.  Families from all sectors of the community in this island and in Britain suffered loss.  Many families still have questions that they want answered.  Mechanisms are currently in operation in the North which are attempting to provide some of these answers for families but we must be aware that no single mechanism or solution will be acceptable or effective for all families.  This Government recommits itself to working with our partners in the British Government and with our colleagues in the newly constituted Northern Ireland Executive to address the legacy of the Troubles.  It will not be easy, nor quick, but it is a challenge that we must and do accept.

This week’s visit of the Head of State of our nearest neighbour is an historic occasion.  Let me say clearly, on behalf of the Government and the great majority of the Irish people, how very welcome she is. 

It would be wrong to imagine that the huge symbolism of today’s wreath laying ceremony in the Garden of Remembrance and tomorrow’s ceremony at Islandbridge can dispel completely the complex legacy of the troubles.  Indeed the party who sought to raise this matter in Private Members' business tonight will know more than most that the bitterness which still lingers at many of the deadly activities which the Provisional IRA engaged in is unlikely to be dispelled in some cases for generations.  It is easy for us to advocate reconciliation and forgiveness but the pain of the bereaved has understandably in some cases made a stone of the heart.  And then there are concerns too about the behaviour of other parties to the conflict which are reflected in the motion here tonight, in particular concerns that the full truth behind horrific events has not been fully established.

As we move forward to a better future for all the people who share this island and those who live on the neighbouring island, we will not forget those who died, those who were injured, those who mourn them.  In the Good Friday Agreement, we recognised that "victims have a right to remember as well as to contribute to a changed society."  As members of this House, we have a duty to remember.  In that remembering of those who died, in our recognition of those who mourn, we have a duty to continue to contribute to a changed society.  This visit is a contribution to that changed society.

Last month we saw the family and friends of a young police officer, Ronan Kerr, mourning the loss of a cherished son and brother.  The Taoiseach met with Ronan’s mother Nuala and extended the heartfelt sympathy of all of us. The funeral cortege showed the world images of a new reality in Northern Ireland.  GAA members bore the coffin of a fellow player and passed it on to his fellow police officers.  The dignified but harrowing pictures of the family as they dealt with their loss were difficult to watch but important to see.

 
In their invitation to members of the public to join them at their annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Memorial on Talbot Street, the families of those who were killed thirty seven years ago asked that no flags, banners or emblems be displayed.  I believe that they wish their fellow citizens to join them in quiet remembrance of thirty four lives lost, not to make a political statement but to show that those lives are not forgotten.  That their pain is recognised.  That their story is heard.  On that monument, names are carved in stone for all to see but the pain that the families bear is not always so visible.

In the Good Friday Agreement, all the participants recognised that "the achievement of a peaceful and just society would be the true memorial to the victims of violence."  We have made significant strides in recent years, in recent days even.  The newly appointed Executive in Stormont followed an election where the people in the North clearly rejected the violent alternative to a shared and better future.  The previous Assembly served its full term of four years during which we saw the devolution of policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland.  A tiny majority do not accept the clearly expressed will of the electorate, and continue to ignore the clear and unambiguous message that was given in 1998 from voters all over this island, that violence was not the way forward.

The families of those killed in Dublin and Monaghan on 17 May 1974 gathered in Dublin this morning to remember their loved ones and others who lost their lives on this side of the border. As they did so a bomb disposal van belonging to our Defence Forces sped down Amiens Street on its way to deal with a device.  A chilling reminder that the carnage that was wrought in Dublin and Monaghan in 1974 is something that others would seek to wreak on this city today.  I trust that everyone in this House will condemn those who sought to disrupt today’s events and who seek to drag us back into a violent past.

This All party Motion represents an opportunity for us as elected representatives in this Dáil to send a clear message to our counterparts in Westminster.  In so doing I hope we can also send a clear message of solidarity to the families who gathered in Dublin earlier today.

ends