British-Irish Co-operation
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-24
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Brendan Smith (FF), Cavan-Monaghan

I welcome the establishment of annual UK-Ireland summits. These have the potential to strengthen further bilateral relationships and intensify collaboration in areas such as trade, business, technology, investment, energy and environment. Alongside these annual summits, the Government must also ensure that the potential of the institutions established under the Good Friday Agreement across our jurisdictions are maximised to the best possible extent. As well as that important work, legacy issues must get priority attention in all Irish-British discussions. I refer again to the heinous crimes and loss of life inflicted on communities in my constituency, crimes for which nobody has been brought to justice. I instance again the murder of two young teenagers in my own home area when Geraldine O’Reilly and Patrick Stanley were killed in the bombing in Belturbet on 28 December 1972, and the dreadful loss of life in Monaghan and Dublin on 17 May 1974, when 34 innocent people, including an unborn child, were killed and 300 were seriously injured. Decade after decade has passed and families continue to grieve but there has been little if any progress on investigations into these murders. These must be addressed.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24