RELATIVES of the 33 men and women killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of May 17th, 1974, attended an anniversary Mass in the ProCathedral in Dublin on Saturday.
The families have issued High Court proceedings against the State because of the refusal of the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, to allow them access to secret files concerning the bombs. The documents are required in order to pursue several cases against the British government that are currently before the European Court of Human Rights.
Mr Tim Grace, from Drumcondra in Dublin, whose wife, Breda, was killed in the Talbot Street bombing, said last night he believed that the authorities were attempting to "cover up their incompetency".
"I think it is scandalous that we are being treated in this way. It took me the best part of 10 years to get over my wife's death and finally seek justice. I believe it is the old Civil Service business of covering up their incompetence that has led to this," he said.
Nobody has ever been charged with the bombings, allegedly planted by loyalist paramilitaries, which killed 26 people in Dublin and seven in Monaghan.
Mr Grace has called for Fine Gael and Labour to follow the lead of Fianna Fail and offer a commitment to the relatives that more urgency will be given to the investigation. He says that had the majority of victims been from affluent areas of Dublin "things would have been very different".
The relatives are also calling on Dublin Corporation to implement plans to erect a monument to the victims in Talbot Street. "They feel they are getting no justice at all," said a spokeswoman for the victims' relatives.