Belturbet bomb: Taoiseach wants answers on 1972 attack

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin has said he will pursue answers on the Belturbet bombing in 1972 with the UK government and authorities in Northern Ireland.

Civilians Geraldine O'Reilly, 15, and Paddy Stanley, 16, were killed in the no-warning car bomb in the County Cavan town.

Loyalist paramilitaries were blamed for the attack which Mr Martin described as "heinous".

He said the families deserve "answers".

The taoiseach added he will do what he "possibly can" and that the garda (Irish police) investigation remains "open".

However, Fianna Fáil TD Brendan Smith told the Dáil (Irish parliament) "there has never been a proper or thorough investigation" into the attack by NI authorities.

The Cavan-Monaghan TD said the least that relatives "deserve is the truth", RTÉ reported.

'Proper and full investigation'

The Irish broadcaster said six separate reports have been compiled by Gardaí.

Niamh Smyth TD, a party colleague of Mr Smith, said it was "utterly wrong" that the O'Reilly and Stanley families had not been granted access to police files on the attack because, 48 years on, the investigation was "deemed to be live".

She called for a "proper and full investigation".

No one has ever been convicted for the attack which Brendan Smith said is believed to have emanated from County Fermanagh.

He told the Dáil that he had previously presented evidence of collusion between the British Army and loyalist paramilitaries related to bombs in the Republic of Ireland's border counties.