Royal echoes to be heard everywhere in Leinster House

DÁIL SKETCH:THE MAIN action was all off-stage. But its echoes were everywhere on the Dáil stage and in a strangely quiet Leinster House complex.

A private members’ motion brought by Sinn Féin and backed by all parties called on the British government to release its files on the Dublin-Monaghan bombings. The motion echoed a similar unanimous motion in July 2008.

Earlier, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin asked about those files during Leaders’ Questions but first welcomed the visit of Queen Elizabeth to the Republic.

It was a “truly historic day, which reflects the transformation of relations between our two countries”. It was also “fitting and generous that the British monarch was in a position to pay her respect at the Garden of Remembrance”.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, fresh back from meeting the Queen at the Áras and witnessing the 21-gun salute and the Irish version of pomp and circumstance, was equally taken with the visit.

He said they could “never know in advance the power of the symbolism of these issues”. But “the symbolism of Capt Tom Holmes walking across in front of Áras an Uachtaráin to the Queen of England, flanked by two Irish Army officers, and indicating that the guard of honour, drawn from the Army, the Air Corps and the Navy, was ready for her inspection, was powerful beyond words”.

Then it was the turn of Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, who had his hair cut and was wearing a suit rather than his usual rolled-up shirt sleeves. Was it for Queen or country?

Mr Adams said the “complete normalisation of the relationships between Ireland, and between Ireland and Britain and the independence of this nation, as opposed to this State, can only be fully achieved by ending partition and reuniting our people and our country”.

Sinn Féin brought the private members’ motion on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in May 1974 in which 33 people died.

Mr Kenny repeated to both leaders that he had raised and would raise the issue of the publication of the files with British prime minister David Cameron. He also pointed out that there were many issues and atrocities “about which we do not have the full facts”.

Mr Adams got the point and suggested that “rather than us just playing politics with the issue” would the two governments set up an independent international truth commission. Later Sinn Féin Cavan-Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin introduced the sombre private members’ debate, criticised the “grossly insensitive” scheduling of the royal visit and said that the release of British files on the bombings had to be the priority of any British-Irish discussions.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter referred to the history made with the visit and despite the “thugs” on Dorset Street in Dublin, the vast majority of people welcomed the visit.

He referred to the remembrance service by the relatives of victims of the 1974 bombings on the anniversary yesterday and said that as the families did so a bomb disposal van drove near by to “deal with a device”. That he said was a “chilling reminder” that the carnage of 1974 was something others “would seek to wreak on this city today”.