Irish Voice February 8, 2004 Collusion on Bombings ‘Probable’  By Tom Deignan  THE former Irish ambassador to the U.S. has said that British security forces “probably” colluded with Loyalists who carried out the Dublin/Monaghan bombings in 1974.  This comes as New York lawyer Frank Durkan gave testimony to the Irish government about the trauma suffered by the only American citizen injured in the blast. As the Irish Voice reported last week, Durkan went to Ireland to tell Joan Hourigan’s story to the committee investigating the Dublin/Monaghan bombings. Hourigan, a Dublin native who now lives in New Jersey, suffered severe physical and emotional injuries during the bombing.  In a terrible coincidence, Hourigan was also injured in a 1972 Dublin bombing. Subsequently, she has had many surgeries to ease the pain of various injuries. For years she also had trouble sleeping, and even watching certain kinds of movies. Durkan made the trip to Ireland because since September 11, Hourigan has had trouble getting on a plane. Still, she hopes her testimony will lead to a public inquiry into how the Irish and British governments investigated the 1974 bombings. No one has ever been charged in the atrocities. The most explosive charge made last week, however, came from Sean Donlon, the former Irish ambassador to the U.S. who was also an assistant secretary to the Department of Foreign Affairs stationed in the North during the 1970s. Donlon said it was a “probability rather than a possibility” that the bombings were carried out with the help of the British army or the Royal Ulster Constabulary.  Donlon — also giving testimony to the committee investigating the attacks — said, “I came to the conclusion that there was a pattern of collusion in Northern Ireland. There were areas where RUC officers picked up people because of information given to them by loyalist paramilitaries. I got this information from people I would trust, like solicitors, priests and politicians. Certain court cases that went on at the time clearly indicted that collusion was involved.” Donlon even said the collusion might have been known at the senior level.  Donlon and Durkan’s testimony come in the wake of the release of the Barron report on the bombings. Though highly critical of the Irish and British governments, Donlon said he believed the report did not look closely enough at the question of collusion.