The State has “definitely failed” victims of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, one survivor has said. 

Fifty-years-ago today, three UVF bombs were detonated in Dublin and a further was exploded in Monaghan. 

Thirty-four people were injured and some 300 were injured. 

Wendy Burke was just one-year-old at the time and she and her pregnant mother had just been to a hospital appointment.

“She stopped off to do a bit of shopping,” she told Lunchtime Live. 

“She was a shopaholic, had she not been a shopaholic she probably would have been home long ago.

“So, she was caught right slap bang in the middle of it.” 

50th Anniversary of Dublin Monaghan Bombings. Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Ms Burke said she found it “mind boggling” that half a century had passed since the tragedy and that she and her father were still “broken” by the tragedy. 

“The fact that we haven’t had any closure in any way shape or form in 50 years is so hurtful,” she said. 

“We feel so let down. 

“The Government has definitely failed us as a group and as citizens of this country.”

Commemoration of the victims of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings at the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings Memorial, Talbot Street. Photographer: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Ms Burke said families have been “pushed aside and silenced” and said she disliked the monument erected in memory of the victims. 

“The monument that they put up for victims is a disgrace,” she said. 

“It’s down the bottom of Talbot Street, it’s not relevant to any of the bomb sites.

“In my opinion, it’s just not good enough for the biggest mass murder in the history of this State. 

“That monument and that remembrance is not good enough.” 

'Reasonable demand'

At the State commemoration today, President Higgins said there had been “manifest failures” from both Dublin and London in relation to the investigation. 

“Let us take the opportunity that today’s commemoration constitutes to reaffirm not only our commitment to peace, and our revulsion of war and conflict, but our support for the relatives and all members of the public whose reasonable demand is, however embarrassing or painful it may be, for the full truth to emerge,” he said. 

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said a State apology to the families would “certainly help”.

Main image: Commemoration of the victims of the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings at the Dublin and Monaghan Bombings Memorial, Talbot Street. Picture by: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie