IVOR ROBERTS,
Sir, - I was disappointed to read the letter from Patricia McKenna MEP (May 17th) about the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
Ms McKenna states that the British Government has not seen fit to cooperate with Mr Justice Barron's inquiry into the bombings. The fact of the matter is that we have repeatedly made clear our commitment to respond positively and sympathetically to the request for assistance by Justice Barron. We have trawled through a vast number of files held in Whitehall Departments and agencies in an effort to find any information related to Justice Barron's request. To give you an idea of the scale of the task, the Northern Ireland Office alone has in the region of 68,000 registered files.
We have submitted information to Mr Justice Barron, as the Taoiseach has acknowledged in the Dail, and our dialogue with him continues.
The suggestion that consideration of a defence of sovereign immunity somehow implies official British involvement in the bombings is wrong both as a matter of international law and common sense. Ms McKenna should know that it is not the practice of one state to submit to the domestic jurisdiction of another in circumstances of this kind. The doctrine of sovereign immunity has been upheld by both the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. No inference of any British involvement could reasonably be drawn from reliance on such an uncontroversial and widely asserted right.
Tony Blair has repeatedly made clear his revulsion towards those who perpetrate terror, from wherever it comes. To say that he has no interest in helping to find those responsible for acts of terrorism against Irish citizens is as offensive as it is untrue.
We understand the devastation felt by the family and friends of those murdered by terrorists, and their need to find answers. I do not think that these answers will be brought any closer by the promotion of false allegations. - Yours, etc,
IVOR ROBERTS,
British Ambassador,
Dublin 4,.