Report: Lost evidence in Ireland's 1974 terrorist strike
1:15 AM
Posted: Thursday, April 05, 2007
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- Missing police files and lost evidence thwarted an inquiry into car bombings that claimed 33 lives on one day in 1974 -- the deadliest terrorist strike in Irish history, according to a report released Wednesday.
Nobody was ever charged in connection with the May 17, 1974, attack. Nearly simultaneously and without warning, three cars exploded amid crowds of Dublin shoppers and commuters walking toward a train station. A fourth detonated about an hour later outside a pub in the border town of Monaghan.
An outlawed Protestant group from Northern Ireland, the Ulster Volunteer Force, later claimed responsibility, but suspicions have long lingered that soldiers or police from the British territory were involved.
The government assigned veteran lawyer Patrick MacEntee in 2005 with finding out why Ireland's national police force closed down its investigation in 1974 and failed to follow up important leads.
MacEntee's work was originally supposed to take just six months, but the deadline for delivery was repeatedly moved -- partly because the lawyer said the British government was refusing to provide requested intelligence documents and former intelligence officers for interview.
His 249-page report, finally made public Wednesday, also criticized the Irish Justice Department's handling of security and intelligence records.
Though he had established files from the department's security division had gone missing, MacEntee said he couldn't be certain how many records had been lost.
A failure of officials to notice files and evidence were missing was just as disturbing as the fact they had been lost, he said.
Nobody was ever charged in connection with the May 17, 1974, attack. Nearly simultaneously and without warning, three cars exploded amid crowds of Dublin shoppers and commuters walking toward a train station. A fourth detonated about an hour later outside a pub in the border town of Monaghan.
An outlawed Protestant group from Northern Ireland, the Ulster Volunteer Force, later claimed responsibility, but suspicions have long lingered that soldiers or police from the British territory were involved.
The government assigned veteran lawyer Patrick MacEntee in 2005 with finding out why Ireland's national police force closed down its investigation in 1974 and failed to follow up important leads.
MacEntee's work was originally supposed to take just six months, but the deadline for delivery was repeatedly moved -- partly because the lawyer said the British government was refusing to provide requested intelligence documents and former intelligence officers for interview.
His 249-page report, finally made public Wednesday, also criticized the Irish Justice Department's handling of security and intelligence records.
Though he had established files from the department's security division had gone missing, MacEntee said he couldn't be certain how many records had been lost.
A failure of officials to notice files and evidence were missing was just as disturbing as the fact they had been lost, he said.
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