On Monday evening, at the Manhattan Club in New York, Paul Nelson will lend his support to an upcoming campaign aimed at securing answers to the many questions surrounding the assassination of his wife, attorney Rosemary Nelson.
Across the Atlantic, on both sides of the border in Ireland this week, other families are seeking answers arising from the deaths of loved ones. The Finucane family in the North is still awaiting a full inquiry into the assassination of lawyer Pat Finucane 10 years ago in Belfast. The Nelsons should not have to wait so long.
But in terms of years lost and questions unanswered, not even the Finucane and Nelson murders match up to the Dublin-Monaghan bombings of May 1974.
Twenty-five years have passed since the explosions that resulted in both the biggest single casualty count of the Troubles and the largest mass murder in the history of the Irish Republic. And yet the families of the 34 dead and 250 maimed still have more questions than answers.
The Garda investigation into the bombings was concluded after three months. The files have never been opened to the public. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern says he has seen the files and there is nothing in them that would be of concern to the families.
Little surprise that such a short-lived investigation, one that we are led to believe produced little or nothing in terms of tangible results, would leave the families feeling cheated and angry.
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In the absence of a broad-based legal, and possibility international inquiry, the vacuum surrounding the 1974 bombings has been filled with any amount of suspicion, conjecture and speculation, much of it extremely alarming in its conclusion. Many believe that British security forces, intelligence operatives and members of the RUC aided and abetted the most likely immediate culprits, loyalist bombers.
Until the many questions arising from the bombings are at least seen to be addressed, if not wholly answered, the relatives of the dead and injured will be forced to remain in an intolerable state of emotional suspension. After what they have already lost, that is a punishment beyond reason.