Bertie Ahern says Tony Blair told him MI5 and MI6 “probably” have info on Dublin-Monaghan bombs

Bertie Ahern has said Tony Blair told him MI5 and MI6 “probably” have information on the Dublin-Monaghan bombings but would not release it.

The former Taoiseach called on the UK intelligence services to release all information about the 1974 bombings, the biggest loss of life on any single day of the Troubles.

A ceremony was held in Dublin on Friday to mark 50 years since the three bombs exploded in Dublin city and one in Monaghan town on May 17 1974. Although the UVF admitted responsibility in 1993, no-one has ever been convicted.

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Speaking to the PA news agency at the 50-year commemoration event in Dublin, Mr Ahern said investigators examining the gang suspected of being involved in the bombings are “full of determination” but predicted they will experience “a tough kickback”.

Operation Denton is investigating the activities of the Glenanne gang, which is suspected of being involved in the bombings. Head of the investigation Sir Iain Livingstone told RTE this week that there was collusion between the gang and the British security services.

Mr Ahern, who was taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, said that “from 1974 to ’98 nothing happened” to investigate the bombings. He said the outcome of a report complied by independent judges Justice Liam Hamilton and Justice Henry Barron “really went after the British government”.

“Tony Blair, in fairness to him, always gave me a good hearing on it,” Mr Ahern told PA.

“But he equally told me MI5 and MI6 probably had information but that they weren’t going to give it. What I’d like to see is that whatever MI5 and MI6 have is made public – whatever it is, good, bad or indifferent.

“What I don’t want to hear is that they’ve nothing. I’m just worried about the kickback, but we’ll see.”

The PSNI chief constable said the organisation had released all documentation related to the bombings to Operation Denton.

Jon Boutcher also said the PSNI had committed to providing “unfettered access” of unredacted material to the new commission of investigation of legacy cases.

Speaking to PA in Dublin, Mr Boutcher said he hoped the Denton report would be published before the end of the year.

Asked if he supported a call for the UK Government to release information about the bombings, he said: “Each jurisdiction, each government, has got a responsibility to its citizens to release material about cases such as this.

“So I would support absolutely any request from any state to investigate cases such as Dublin and Monaghan that occurred in their jurisdiction where there’s information that sits elsewhere.

“That’s a matter of democratic responsibility for each government so I would expect that to happen and I’d support that.”

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