Report due into 1970s Dublin bombings
A widow who has waited over 30 years to find out who killed her husband in a series of bomb attacks is hoping today that a long-awaited report will help bring her closure.
The Barron Report into the Dublin bombings in 1972 and 1973 – which killed three bus workers – is to be published later today by a Government committee.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern received the report from Mr Justice Barron last June and it was considered by his Cabinet yesterday.
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice is expected to publish the report at 6pm today, pending a vote of its all-party members.
On December 1, 1972 a car bomb exploded at Sackville Place and Liberty Hall, killing CIE bus driver George Bradshaw, 30 and bus conductor Tommy Duffy, 24.
On January 20, 1973 a another car bomb exploded in Sackville Place for the second time and killed another CIE bus conductor, Tommy Douglas, 21.
Dubliner Monica Duffy-Campbell was four months’ pregnant when her husband Tommy died on December 1, 1972.
They were married less than two years earlier and already had a baby daughter.
The bus conductor was on his tea break at the Irish transport company, CIE’s depot in Sackville Place in Dublin when the chilling bomb warning came through.
Ms Duffy-Campbell said: “They all ran out the doors but Tommy and his colleague George Bradshaw ran into the path of the car holding the bomb.
“It was a very long time ago – 32 years – but it still only feels like yesterday to me.”
A bronze commemorative sculpture was unveiled to the victims in Sackville Place in July.
The sculpture was designed by the couple’s son Tom.
Justice for the Forgotten, which has campaigned for justice for the victims and survivors, will present its response at a press conference in a hotel central Dublin this evening.
But spokeswoman Margaret Unwin said the victims’ families were pessimistic that the report would throw any new light on the bombings.
She said: “We believe it is a very short report. There was limited co-operation from the British security authorities so we don’t expect a full picture to emerge.
“It will be interesting to get details on the garda investigation and who they believed was responsible.
“The investigation in to the Dublin and Monaghan bombings wound up after only three months and the files were lost.”
Relatives of Mr Bradshaw will be travelling from Co Tipperary while the Douglas family will be coming from England and Scotland.
The Barron report is also due to deal with other atrocities in the early 1970s, including the car bomb explosion at Belturbet on December 28, 1972, which killed two teenagers, Geraldine O’Reilly and Patrick Stanley.
