Adams denies DUP's La Mon bombing claims

DUP MP Iris Robinson has pledged to "stand by" allegations she made under privilege in the Commons yesterday that Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was one of the men behind the 1978 La Mon hotel bombing.

On the anniversary of the atrocity, the Strangford MP named Mr Adams as a co-conspirator of the bombing and called for the government to open up an independent inquiry into the atrocity which killed 12 people.

However, Mr Adams rejected the claims and said they were made to deflect attention away from developments in the Stevens Inquiry which is investigating collusion between the security forces and loyalist paramilitaries.

Mr Adams said: "It is no coincidence that in the day the Stevens Inquiry announced the most important development in recent years into the investigation of collusion, and in particular of Pat Finucane's death, Robinson engages in this piece of theatrics."

Responding to Mrs Robinson's call for an inquiry, NIO Minister Des Browne said he understood her argument but that the government had no plans to establish an inquiry.

However, Mrs Robinson said that despite the government's initial rejection for a new investigation, the fight would continue for a new judicial enquiry.

She added: "We have to continue with the demand for this inquiry and at the end of the day if we are wrong in our assumptions and views then a public inquiry is the only way we can establish truth from fiction."

The DUP MP added that the original police investigation was tainted by external influences and she had little confidence that a new police investigation would throw more light on the planning and execution of the bombing.

Meanwhile, the husband of one of the victims said that he was still bitter about the bombing.

He said: "People ask me am I bitter about what happened to us… (25 years has passed) and if you ask 'am I still bitter?', I would say that I'm twice as bitter now as I was even 15 years ago. Not just with the people who had carried out the atrocity, I'm very bitter with our own Prime Minister and the government.

"Mr Blair is running around the world at the moment acting as a peace-maker, and trying to sort out the terrorism that's going on in the world, and still he hasn't been able to sort out the trouble in his own back yard."

Twelve people, all Protestants, were killed and 23 badly injured when the IRA exploded a firebomb at the restaurant of the La Mon House Hotel on February 17 1978.

(MB)