10.6.04
IOL
Mayor stands by Dublin-Monaghan getaway car claim
09/06/2004 - 19:46:24
Dublin Lord Mayor Royston Brady tonight stood over claims that his father’s taxi was used as a getaway vehicle during the 1974 Dublin bombings.
In a statement released this evening, he said: “Three weeks ago I was asked about the incident again by a journalist and again relayed the facts as they were told to me (by my father).”
Media reports today raised doubts about the incident ever having taken place.
Mr Brady, who is running for the European elections, was also accused of not providing details of the incident to the Barron Inquiry into the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, despite a request to do so.
The Lord Mayor did not address this in his statement but said he believed the gardaí would have a record of the incident involving his late father.
“I did not raise this during the course of my campaign for the European Parliament and would not in any way attempt to use the incident to obtain the sympathy of voters in Dublin.”
The Justice for the Forgotten group, which represents the victims of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, said it could not understand why Mr Brady had not given evidence to either the Barron Inquiry or the Oireachtas committee investigation.
Mr Brady, who has controversially avoided media interviews during the campaign, said he wanted to focus his attention on an intensive canvass of Dublin before Friday’s European elections.
Tánaiste Mary Harney said today she did not want to comment directly on the controversy arose.
“But I would very much regret if anyone chose to cause hurt and grief to the victims of the Dublin-Monaghan bombing, who have already suffered more than enough,” she said.
Mr Brady told Hot Press magazine last November that his father was taken into the Dublin mountains and tied up just before the Dublin bombing which killed 26 people.
He said: “The night before the bombs went off in Talbot Street down here - 1974 it was – he was taken up the mountains at gunpoint and they left him tied up there. He more or less had to beg for his life and explain to them that he had eight kids under the age of 11.
“But they took the car off him and left him up the mountains.”
He told Hot Press that his father, who died aged 60, was always reluctant to talk about the incident, but spoke about it a number of times before he died.
“His car was used as one of the getaway cars,” Lord Mayor Brady said.
“So unfortunately after that incident he couldn’t drive a taxi any more because he lost his nerve, as such - which one would if they had a gun stuck to the back of their neck.”
Mayor stands by Dublin-Monaghan getaway car claim
09/06/2004 - 19:46:24
Dublin Lord Mayor Royston Brady tonight stood over claims that his father’s taxi was used as a getaway vehicle during the 1974 Dublin bombings.
In a statement released this evening, he said: “Three weeks ago I was asked about the incident again by a journalist and again relayed the facts as they were told to me (by my father).”
Media reports today raised doubts about the incident ever having taken place.
Mr Brady, who is running for the European elections, was also accused of not providing details of the incident to the Barron Inquiry into the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, despite a request to do so.
The Lord Mayor did not address this in his statement but said he believed the gardaí would have a record of the incident involving his late father.
“I did not raise this during the course of my campaign for the European Parliament and would not in any way attempt to use the incident to obtain the sympathy of voters in Dublin.”
The Justice for the Forgotten group, which represents the victims of the Dublin-Monaghan bombings, said it could not understand why Mr Brady had not given evidence to either the Barron Inquiry or the Oireachtas committee investigation.
Mr Brady, who has controversially avoided media interviews during the campaign, said he wanted to focus his attention on an intensive canvass of Dublin before Friday’s European elections.
Tánaiste Mary Harney said today she did not want to comment directly on the controversy arose.
“But I would very much regret if anyone chose to cause hurt and grief to the victims of the Dublin-Monaghan bombing, who have already suffered more than enough,” she said.
Mr Brady told Hot Press magazine last November that his father was taken into the Dublin mountains and tied up just before the Dublin bombing which killed 26 people.
He said: “The night before the bombs went off in Talbot Street down here - 1974 it was – he was taken up the mountains at gunpoint and they left him tied up there. He more or less had to beg for his life and explain to them that he had eight kids under the age of 11.
“But they took the car off him and left him up the mountains.”
He told Hot Press that his father, who died aged 60, was always reluctant to talk about the incident, but spoke about it a number of times before he died.
“His car was used as one of the getaway cars,” Lord Mayor Brady said.
“So unfortunately after that incident he couldn’t drive a taxi any more because he lost his nerve, as such - which one would if they had a gun stuck to the back of their neck.”
