“No evidence” of collusion between the British state and loyalist paramilitaries has been found in connection with the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings, but it “cannot be categorically excluded”, the team reviewing the atrocity has found.
A summary of the findings of Operation Denton, which was published on Tuesday, noted “legitimate questions have been raised around the lack of information and intelligence recovered”. There was a “poor investigative response” following the attacks, which killed 34 people and “have contributed to assertions and beliefs in collusion existing”.
The report said it had “not identified any evidence or intelligence which would indicate that British security forces colluded with the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) to carry out the attacks in Dublin or Monaghan, nor has any evidence of state collusion been identified”.
There was “no specific intelligence which, if acted upon, could have prevented” the 1974 bombings, it found.
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The report said UVF Brigade staff based in the Shankill area of Belfast “planned, resourced and carried out the attacks” and, in the case of the Monaghan bombing, operational support was provided by the Mid Ulster UVF.
“There do not appear to be any realistic opportunities from an investigative or forensic perspective to warrant any form of criminal re-investigation into these attacks,” it said. The prospect of any successful criminal justice via a prosecution is “extremely unlikely” in the absence of new or compelling evidence, it stated.
Nobody has been convicted of carrying out the co-ordinated attacks on May 17th, 1974. Three car bombs exploded in Dublin during the evening rush hour, and a fourth exploded in Monaghan about 90 minutes later. In addition to the 34 deaths, at least 300 people were injured. The UVF later claimed responsibility.
Operation Denton investigated allegations of collusion in 98 incidents resulting in 127 deaths known as the “Glenanne Series”. This groups attacks by loyalist paramilitaries in the 1970s primarily carried out by the Mid Ulster UVF/wider UVF acting alongside what the report said were “corrupt members of the security forces, including the RUC and UDR”.
In a number of individual cases, the report found “clear evidence of collusion with loyalist paramilitaries by state actors”.
There was “clear evidence of the active involvement of members of the security forces with loyalist paramilitary groups” that involved “extremely vicious and serious criminal activity, including bombing attacks and murder”, the review said.
“Paramilitary groups were being supplied with intelligence by corrupt members of the security forces”, while a number of police officers, not convicted of criminal offences, had “inappropriate relationships” with members of the Mid Ulster UVF.
In some cases, “intelligence of information regarding the involvement of prominent loyalist paramilitaries in offences appears not to have been adequately acted upon”.
However, the review found “no evidence which indicates that the RUC at an organisational level was involved or complicit with the activities of extremists or terrorists”.
“No material examined provides evidence of high-level state collusion,” it concluded.
Belfast-based solicitors KRW Law, which represents some families who lost loved ones in the killings investigated by Operation Denton, welcomed its “long fought for” finding of collusion at an individual level.
“However, we firmly challenge the report’s conclusion that there is no evidence of systemic or higher-level collusion,” the firm said, adding that this aspect of the report will be “difficult to reconcile with the patterns of conduct, omissions and failures long-documented across these interconnected cases”.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Helen McEntee, said the collusion set out by the Denton Report was “deeply shocking” and “anyone involved in criminal activity of this kind, whether terrorists or individual members of the security forces, should face consequences for their actions”.
She said the Joint Framework on legacy, recently agreed between the Irish and British governments, facilitated cross-border co-operation that is “essential” to progress in many such cases. She welcomed the commitment by the UK authorities “to provide reciprocal cooperation to Ireland for investigations, inquiries and inquests carried out in this jurisdiction”.
The Operation Denton findings was released as part of the final report of Operation Kenova, the £47 million (€52.6 million) independent investigation into the activities of Stakeknife, the British army’s most senior double agent during the Troubles.
The interim report, published in 2024, concluded more lives were lost than saved as a consequence of the activities of Stakeknife, widely understood to be the senior Belfast IRA member Freddie Scappaticci.
Scappaticci was the head of the “Nutting Squad”, the IRA’s notorious internal security unit. He was linked to 14 murders and 15 abductions. He died in 2023.
He was not named in the report due to a UK government policy of “neither confirm nor deny” relating to sensitive intelligence issues.
In the final Kenova report, the investigation called for Stakeknife to be officially identified, saying the “the circumstances of the Stakeknife case are exceptional”.
The head of Kenova, Iain Livingstone, said the neither confirm nor deny policy “cannot be used to protect agents who commit grotesque serious crime”.
Solicitor Kevin Winters, who represents some families whose loved ones were killed by the IRA’s Internal Security Unit, said the failure to name Scappaticci was “insulting to the families” and “a slap in the face by the state″.
The Northern Secretary, Hilary Benn, again declined to identify Stakeknife, referencing “ongoing litigation relevant to the neither confirm nor deny policy".
He said the UK government’s “first duty is of course to protect national security, and identifying agents risks jeopardising this”. Describing the report as “sobering”, he said Stakeknife’s behaviour was “deeply disturbing” and “should not have happened”. The use of agents is now “subject to strict regulation”, he said.
The final report concluded “checks and balances that should have been in place to manage the agent effectively were ignored through an apparent perverse sense of loyalty to Stakeknife”. These “blurred lines allowed him to continue commit serious criminal offences for which he was never brought to justice”, it found.
