By Axel Schmidt, Advocacy Manager, Ulster Human Rights Watch (UHRW)

In 1978, eighty-two people were killed in Northern Ireland. Twelve from that awful death toll were murdered at the hands of the Provisional IRA in the La Mon House atrocity. Twenty-three other people were injured, some of them very seriously, like Lily McDowell and James Mills, who not only endured life-changing injuries but also lost his wife and sister in the bombing. His daughter was only two years of age when she was deprived of her mother.

On 11 December 2024, James was joined by relatives of six of those injured or killed in this barbaric terrorist attack. ‘Injured’ fails to convey the extent of the horrific disfigurement, surgical reconstruction and decades of pain that innocent people have had to endure. They attended a briefing at the Police Ombudsman’s office in Belfast to be given details of an investigation into the attack.

The investigation took three years to conclude and followed on from a complaint lodged with the Ombudsman’s office in 2014 by Ulster Human Rights Watch. In a very real sense, it has taken 46 years to get to this point.

Victims and survivors are all too painfully aware of what unfolded at La Mon. Questions remained and they not unreasonably harboured the hope that the Ombudsman’s investigation would shed new light on aspects of the terrorist action. Their persistence and search for truth and justice are to be commended. They have been steadfast and determined.

They wanted to know the identities of the bomb-makers and the PIRA leaders who sanctioned the bombing. Where was the bomb assembled and who transported it? A significant question centred on why the Republic of Ireland failed to provide any meaningful contribution to the Ombudsman’s investigation, and why it allowed itself to become a safe haven for many years after the callous attack.

Sadly, the Ombudsman, for security reasons, was unable to make available all the security intelligence we sought.

One finding of great importance concerned the investigation that was conducted by the RUC. The Ombudsman found no evidence of collusion between the republican terrorists and any section of the RUC. Anything else would have been an appalling outcome. Victims and relatives expressed their satisfaction with this outcome.

However, they were disappointed with aspects of the investigation, for example the loss of records and exhibits. Plainly, this was unsatisfactory and there has been no adequate explanation forthcoming as to how and when this happened.

Policing in 1978 was totally different to the way it is done today. The force was under unimaginable pressure, trying to contain and counter vile terrorist organisations who brought mayhem to communities and our towns and cities.

The Ombudsman’s finding of no collusion or ‘collusive behaviour’ and his opinion that the RUC conducted the investigation with ‘earnest endeavour’ lays to rest once all supposition and suspicion and for all.

Yes, there were some failures during the investigation. It’s important to acknowledge these deficiencies and how they impacted on Court proceedings and the prosecution of suspects. That said, they do not take away from the fact that the PIRA terrorists were the murderers of innocent people and several key people are still at large.

The Ombudsman’s office has done all it can and now we must take our campaign to the next level. The search for answers and some measure of justice will go on.

Our next step will be to lodge a request with the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) to ascertain who were the people responsible for the bombing – planners, bomb-makers and PIRA leadership – and the role the Republic of Ireland played in allowing terrorists to make the bomb and find protection from arrest and prosecution while residing on its territory.

Finally, I would like to thank all those victims and relatives for their remarkable courage and determination. They are the backbone of this campaign and deserve full acknowledgement.