The son of a man murdered in the Dublin-Monaghan bombings is seeking to bring a High Court challenge over what he says is a refusal by the Garda Commissioner to provide information to the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman.
On May 17th, 1974, Patrick Askin was grievously wounded and died later when a car bomb went off in Monaghan town. Earlier that day, three car bombs went off in Dublin city centre. A total of 33 people, including a pregnant woman, were killed that day.
Now, Mr Askin's son, also Patrick, from Armagh, wants to bring High Court proceedings over what he says is the refusal of the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice to provide intelligence material in relation to the atrocities to the Office of the Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland (OPONI).
Mr Askin says he instructed his solicitor to bring proceedings on foot of the campaign, set up in 1996, by the Justice for the Forgotten (JFF) which is seeking truth and justice for the victims of the bombings.
On Tuesday, Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty deferred an application by Ruaidhri Giblin BL, instructed by KRW Law LLP, seeking leave to bring judicial review proceedings.
Mr Giblin said some seven years since the request from OPONI was made, the families of the victims, some of whom were in court, are still waiting for gardai to provide assistance.
He said gardaí have given no reason or rational explanation which would allow his clients to say whether the decision to decline assistance was justified or not.
Ms Justice Gearty said there were some really serious issues raised, but she felt the proper course was to direct a hearing of the leave application on notice to the respondents, so the reasons can be teased out. She adjourned the matter to November.
The case arises out of a review conducted by the OPONI into the activities of the so-called Glennane Gang who are believed to have been responsible for 120 murders during the Troubles, including the Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
It is claimed OPONI is due to publish a report on its investigation called Operation Newham.
However, it is claimed that despite international letters of request having been sent in 2017 to the Republic's authorities by OPONI for information about the Glennane Gang in this jurisdiction, the Garda Commissioner failed to provide that information.
The information sought included all requests made by the gardaí to RUC, and provided by the RUC, as regards intelligence, investigative matters or other information.
Following a Northern Ireland Court of Appeal judgment in 2019, a review of the activities of the Glennane Gang, known as Operation Denton, was commissioned.
In April 2021, the Garda Commissioner announced the force was unable to hand over relevant files to Operation Denton because it was in the nature of a review, and not a criminal investigation, it is claimed.
However, the Minister for Justice issued a direction that the Commissioner cooperate with Operation Denton, it is also claimed.
It is argued that Operation Newham is also an investigation and there was no good reason to exclude it from the same directive the minister issued about Operation Denton.
Mr Askins seeks orders and declarations including that the Commissioner's failure to provide the information is a breach of his right to have his father's murder effectively investigated in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
He further seeks an order compelling the Minister for Justice to implement an appropriate mechanism for the provision of information in the Commissioner's possession to the OPONI. for the purpose of facilitating Operation Newham.
In an affidavit, he said the so-called Glennane gang comprised RUC officers and soldiers as well as informants financed by and used by the RUC and the Ministry of Defence.
He said the most recent request to the Garda Commissioner to cooperate with OPONI had not met with any meaningful response.
When the Minister for Justice was again recently asked to provide a mechanism for providing the information, Mr Askin's solicitor was told that cooperation with OPONI was an operational matter for the gardai but that the force would continue to cooperate with requests from the UK authorities to the greatest possible extent.
