Victims seek wider inquiry

A new group calling itself Border Relatives, whose membership is drawn from families of victims of terrorist attacks along the Border throughout the 1970s, has called on the Government to extend the scope of the Wilson inquiry to cover the bombing of the Three Star Inn in Castleblaney, Co Monaghan, in 1976.

The group, which held a press conference in Dublin yesterday, said it was convinced the Garda knew "from the earliest times" the identity of those responsible for a number of murders and "up to 50 attacks by loyalist paramilitaries in the 1970s in the south".

Mr Peter O'Connor, a victim of the bombing of Kay's Tavern in Dundalk in 1975, said he was convinced the security forces on both sides of the Border had colluded both to target the IRA and to ensure the passage of emergency powers legislation through the Dail later that year.

Mr Jimmy Sharkey said he had been told by senior gardai they knew who had murdered his uncle, Seamus Ludlow. However for years he and his family "had been fed the lie" that their uncle had been killed by the IRA because he was an informer.

The group says it is non-political and non-sectarian and has pledged to work alongside Justice for the Forgotten to ensure that "nobody is forgotten and justice is finally done".