Calls for victims of paramilitaries allowance in republic

A group representing more than 20,000 victims, mostly in the North, but also in Britain and the Republic, has now called on the Irish government to extend a carers’ grant for victims of paramilitary violence to the Republic.
Innocent Victims United (IVU), who lobbied for the introduction of the £3,000 a year allowance to carers of victims of terrorism in the North are now seeking a parallel arrangement south of the border.
Victims of violence connected to the conflict in the North include those killed in the 1970s in the loyalist bomb attacks in Belturbet, Dublin, Monaghan and Dundalk.
In Belturbet, 15-year-old local girl Geraldine O’Reilly and 16-year-old Patrick Stanley from Clara, Offaly were both killed, and many others injured after a loyalist car bomb went off at 10.30pm, on Thursday, December 28, 1972.
Nobody has ever been charged in connection with the killings, however the matter is still considered an ‘open investigation’ by An Garda Siochana.
Other victims include the family of Fine Gael Senator Billy Fox, shot in Co Monaghan in March 1974.

Strategies
IVU organiser Kenny Donaldson said: “IVU has campaigned for governments to collectively work together around the provision of services for victims/survivors of the Troubles. The Stormont, UK and RoI governments need to come together and cough up the resources needed, as well as put in place the necessary political and practical frameworks to enable it to happen.
“We have met with and lobbied many senior politicians from across the political spectrum and this work will intensify along with other campaigning strategies,” he said.
“We stand shoulder to shoulder with GB and RoI-based victims and survivors of terrorism and other Troubles-related violence - they must be given a standing and acknowledgement that has not been forthcoming to date,” Mr Donaldson stated.