Terrorist victims dismiss Tanaiste Micheal Martin's comments after saying he would like to see all Troubles files opened to public inquiries

Mr Martin was speaking on the 50th anniversary of the Dublin Monaghan bombings on 17 May.

Relatives of those killed have campaigned for decades to have state files on the atrocity opened, to no avail.

Edward O'Neill was seriously injured in the UVF attack and lost his father and unborn sister in it also.

He firmly dismissed Mr Martin's comments in the News Letter several weeks ago, saying the Irish government has opposed his efforts to access files for decades.

Now Dublin psychotherapist Dr Finian Fallon has given a similar reaction.

His father, Garda Richard Fallon, was shot dead by republican terror group Saor Eire during a bank robbery in Dublin in 1970.


"I don't believe for a minute that the Irish government will be transparent in any of these matters," Dr Fallon told the News Letter in relation to Mr Martin's comments.

"Look at how dreadfully the Irish government treated the Stardust families for decades."

A blaze in the Stardust nightclub in Dublin 1981 cost 48 lives.

It took 40 years of legal battles with the Irish government for families to secure an admission of responsibility, which only happened in April.

In 2000 Bertie Ahern's government blocked the release of all files on his Dr Fallon’s murder, despite the normal 30-year-rule to release them.

Senior Dail members - including former Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald - and southern journalists have repeatedly alleged that the murder was carried out with weapons imported for the IRA with the support of Irish government ministers.

They have also alleged that one of the killers was spirited away to a ferry in the car of an Irish cabinet minister Neil Blaney.

Dr Fallon added: "A former Fine Gael TD assured me personally that Fine Gael would initiate a formal review of my father's case, but Fine Gael has never honoured his promise. Neither party is honourable with the truth."

He previously presented evidence of “government-sanctioned gun running” to the Irish justice minister.

This was a statement from a former Garda intelligence officer who said he had seen a UK Special Branch photograph of former taoiseach Charlie Haughey’s brother, Jock, in London around 1970 with a leading Saor Eire figure and founding PIRA member John Kelly from Belfast.

Speaking 10 years after Garda Fallon’s murder, Fine Gael TD Garret Fitzgerald said that at the time of the murder, Department of Justice (DOJ) permanent secretary Peter Berry said that “the gun that shot Garda Fallon was imported through Dublin Airport in September 1969 with the knowledge of a member of the then government”.

Mr Fitzgerald then challenged three cabinet ministers “to say what they know” – including former taoiseach Jack Lynch and former minister for defence Jim Gibbons.

The Irish Examiner reported that the year after the murder, Fine Gael TD Gerry L’Estrange told the Dail that “one of the men who murdered Garda Fallon was brought down to Greenore ferryboat in a State car” which it claimed belonged to then minister of agriculture Neil Blaney.

It also reported that Des O’Malley, former minister for justice, told the Dail in 2001 that there was reason to believe Garda Fallon may have been murdered “with a weapon which had been part of earlier illegal arms shipments into this State”.

The Examiner said it was widely believed that finance minister Charlie Haughey sent his brother Jock to Britain to “relieve the distress in Northern Ireland”.

Dr Fallon believes Jock was in London to procure arms which may have killed his father.

His calls for an inquiry and the release of state files under the 30-year rule have so far both been refused.

Meanwhile, a Castlederg man whose brother was also murdered by the IRA gave a similar reaction to Mr Martin’s comments.

Ian Sproule, 23, was shot by the IRA outside his west Tyrone home in 1991. The IRA tried to justify the murder by presenting a Garda intelligence file to journalists which alleged that he was a UVF member. There is no evidence to support the claim.

His brother, John, believes the IRA possession of a Garda intelligence file on his brother demonstrates clear state collusion.

He said of Mr Martin's comments about opening all files to scrutiny: "It means nothing - it is only words.

"I met Michael Martin in Dublin when he was Taoiseach several years ago. He said he would leave no stone unturned to find out the truth and come back to me. But absolutely nothing was done."

The Irish authorities refuse to give him the internal Garda ‘Conroy Report’ into alleged collusion in the murder.

He also says the Garda Ombudsman and ex-minister Charlie Flanagan and minister Simon Coveney were no help in progressing the case.