Remembering the 50th Anniversary of bombings in Dublin & a renewed call for the truth

Today in Dublin a ceremony was held to remember the 50th Anniversary of bombings in Dublin that killed 2 and injured 127.

At 7.58 pm on a winter evening of 1 December 1972, a car bomb exploded near Liberty Hall, Dublin.

There were no fatalities but many people were injured.

At 8.15 pm a second car bomb exploded at Sackville Place, just off O'Connell Street, killing a bus driver George Bradshaw (30), and a bus conductor Tommy Duffy (23).

The bombings were long held to be the work of the British military acting in collusion with British unionist paramilitaries.

On that night in December 1972, the Dáil (Irish Parliament) was in session at Leinster House, Dublin.

A Bill to amend the Offences against the State Act was being debated and a defeat for the Fianna Fáil Government appeared inevitable as the opposition parties and some members of the government party were opposed to the amendment. The Bill was intended to strengthen the government's hand in dealing with the IRA.

The bombings had an immediate impact politically. In the Dáil, the Fine Gael Party immediately withdrew its objection to the Bill and supported its passage into law. A move welcomed by the British Government. The middle ground in politics had shifted away from Civil Liberties and public opinion had moved towards a rejection of violence.

No one has ever been convicted in connection with the bombing, the investigations were inadequate with the British authorities refusing to fully cooperate.

The bereaved and survivors are awaiting the establishment of a Commission of Investigation by the Irish Government into the bombings as recommended in February 2005 by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality. Defense and Women's Rights.

The bombers would return to the same spot seven weeks later setting off another bomb that killed 21-year-old Tommy Douglas, a native of Stirling, Scotland. He had been living in Dublin for just four months and working as a bus conductor.

Today Dublin remembered George Bradshaw, Tommy Duffy, and Tommy Douglas and those injured.

Speakers highlighted the need for truth and opposition to the British Government’s continued cover-up of the bombings.