Madam, - I am prompted to write to you having read an article in your edition of June 2nd by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr Paul Murphy. The hypocrisy of the piece is staggering. Mr Murphy claims he is interested in hearing the stories of victims of the Troubles in order to build a new society. This will come as a great surprise to the bereaved families and survivors of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
On two occasions so far this year, the British authorities, including the PSNI and the Northern Ireland Forensic Science Service, have refused to co-operate with inquiries officially established by arms of this State, the hearings before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Barron report and the inquests into the deaths of the victims.
Mr Murphy, as well as his two predecessors, Dr John Reid and Mr Peter Mandelson, personally refused to appear before the sub-committee on the Barron report.
Mr Murphy now wishes to establish some kind of truth commission in order to avoid the embarrassment of public inquiries potentially damaging to the British government, such as into the murder of Pat Finucane and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. It appears clear from reading his article that Mr Murphy's idea of a truth commission is one where Republicans and Loyalists would confess to murders and misdeeds but where the British government would be unaccountable and would have no role in confessing its part in the conflict. - Yours, etc.,
MARGARET URWIN,
Campaign Secretary,
Justice for the Forgotten,
Lower Gardiner Street,
Dublin 1.