The British government failed to co-operate with a judicial investigation into bombings and killings in 1972 and 1973 in Dublin, Cavan and Donegal, according to the latest report by Mr Justice Henry Barron. Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, reports.
Mr Justice Barron said there was a "striking" lack of assistance from London on these incidents, compared with the help offered over the 1974 Dublin/Monaghan bombings.
He investigated the November 26th bombing of the Film Centre Cinema on Burgh Quay, in which 40 people were injured.
On December 1st, 1972, two CIÉ workers, Mr George Bradshaw and Mr Thomas Duffy, died, and 131 were injured when car bombs exploded at Eden Quay and Sackville Place.
On January 20th, 1974, another bomb went off on Sackville Place that killed a 23-year-old Scottish bus conductor, Mr Thomas Douglas.
During the Dublin/Monaghan inquiry, the British trawled through 68,000 files over 15 months and "some useful information" was gleaned, Mr Barron said.
"The inquiry is surprised and disappointed at this lack of co-operation on the part of the British authorities," the former High Court judge said.
On February 17th, 2003, he wrote to the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, seeking information on the Dublin bombings on December 1st, 1972, and January 20th, 1973.
The British side replied to say that the Irish request - coming so soon after an earlier one into the Dublin/Monaghan bombings - would require "another major search".
Repeatedly ignored, the Barron inquiry was told in February this year that the British had not "yet been able to begin the further major and time-consuming search".
Mr Justice Barron found that republican subversives were "more likely than not" to blame for the Film Centre bombing.
"The bombing took place during a period of intense unrest in the State, in which the government seemed to be exhibiting a new severity in its dealings with republicans."
The jailing of Provisional IRA leader Seán MacStiofáin and other crackdowns "could have provided the motive" for an attack that would "ordinarily" not "have been contemplated".
On the Eden Quay and Sackville Place bombings, Mr Justice Barron said Garda detectives were allowed to play an "active" role into the RUC's inquiries.
British involvement was suspected from the beginning because the bombings showed hallmarks untypical of loyalist paramilitaries' bombings of the time.
In addition, they coincided with the Dáil debate on the Offences Against The State (Amendment) Bill, which offered greater powers to curb the Provisionals.
"If it, the Bill, had not passed, a general election would almost certainly have resulted. Given that the opposition parties were on record as opposing the measure, this in turn may well have given rise to a perception that such an alternative government would be 'soft' on the Provisional IRA," the report said.
"It is quite possible that the bombs were planted in order to influence the course of the debate on the Bill. But the precise timing must be viewed as coincidental."
The report goes on: "It is undoubtedly true that getting increased security co-operation from the Irish government was a priority of the British government at that time.
"But to accuse the British authorities of sanctioning two car-bomb attacks aimed at civilians is an extraordinarily serious allegation, and needs to be backed up by considerably more than mere evidence of a desire for improved security co-operation."
A stronger case for suspecting British involvement in the 1974 Dublin/Monaghan bombings could be made though even there "such involvement must remain a suspicion".
Dealing with the January 1973 Sackville Place bombing, Mr Justice Barron said there is "no substantive evidence" linking it to any particular group.
The inquiry laid the blame for the January 1st, 1973, killings of Mr Oliver Boyce and Ms Bríd Porter outside Burnfoot, Co Donegal, at the hands of the UDA.