A group representing the victims of the Dublin/Monaghan bombings has said it is angered by comments made by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Royston Brady.
Cllr Brady told the Sunday Independentthat his father had been abducted by loyalists and his taxi hijacked on the eve of the Dublin/Monaghan bombings in 1974. He said his father's car was used as a getaway vehicle by the bombers.
His claims have angered the Justice for the Forgotten group because he did not bring the matter to the attention of the Inquiry into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
A spokesman for the inquiry confirmed to ireland.comthat Cllr Brady had been written to by the inquiry after he first made the claims about his father in a Hotpressmagazine interview. The letter was dated November 20th, 2003 and no reply has been received. The spokesman added the Inquiry has not pursued the matter further.
Ms Margaret Urwin, campaign secretary for Justice for the Forgotten said: "He is the first citizen of Dublin yet he fails to go and give evidence to the judge conducting the inquiry into this inquiry".
"Why did he not go afterwards to the Joint Oireachtas Committee inquiry into the bombings which sat from January 20th until March 11th last and which produced a lot more evidence," asked Ms Urwin.
She said she was also worried Cllr Brady was using the story of his father to garner some sympathy as a means of promoting himself politically before the European elections on Friday.
Cllr Brady said in the interview: "He [his father] was a taxi driver and his car was abducted in Dublin. Then he was taken up the mountains at gunpoint and had to beg for his life, saying he had seven kids under the age of nine. So, in the end, they tied him up and left him there".
Ms Urwin asked: "If the taxi was hijacked, what happened to it? Was it recovered? And was there a forensic examination of the car"?
Fianna Fáil said they may make a statement later today. Cllr Brady could not be contacted for comment