36 Riverdale Park North
Belfast
BT11 9DL
The Editor
Irish News
Dear Sir
I refer to your recent article in which Fianna Fail Senator, Mary White, called on the Irish Government to intervene on behalf of the “Colombian Three” (Irish News, 8/O2/03). In response she received a sharp rebuke from Government partner, Fiona O’Malley, TD, of the Progressive Democrats, who robustly defended the Government’s position on this matter. In the process Ms. O’Malley made some telling remarks about the FF/PD coalition’s attitude to the general question of assistance for Irish nationals at home and abroad who need assistance from the Department of Foreign Affairs or its Diplomatic staff abroad. Our own experience is a case in point.
Over seven years ago my son Desmond disappeared on the island of Djerba in Tunisia, while returning home from the Libyan oilfields where he worked as an engineer. He was reported to have been a passenger on a small aircraft that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea at around 3.20am on 5 December 1995 while on route to Malta. The Government of Malta set up an inquiry the quality of which would have made Lord Widgery blush. This enquiry ran for four years and came up with the conclusion of pilot error, notwithstanding evidence that both he and a number of his passengers, Desmond included, had telephoned loved ones stating they would not fly until the next day due to a raging Mediterranean thunder storm. Furthermore, the aircraft required major repairs before take-off and there is absolutely no evidence that this was done. I do not believe the light single-engine aircraft ever took off, let alone crashed.
After five years of physical and financial exhaustion I wrote the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowan TD, requesting assistance. I had hoped that my Government would make representations to the Government of Malta to ensure that an independent enquiry would be held into the incident. To help us find closure we need, and still require, the establishment of the full facts surrounding the disappearance of our son, his four travelling companions, and pilot Carmelo Bartolo.
The Minister’s response, though his private secretary, was polite but left us seething. I quote: “. . .With regard to your request that the Irish Government seek an independent judicial inquiry, the Minister considers that such a move would imply a lack of confidence in the report of the Maltese Board of Inquiry and that, as a serious implication of that nature would be likely to damage our relations with Malta, it would not be in Ireland’s overall interest to accede to your request. He is sorry that there is no other appropriate action open to the Irish Government.”
The Minister’s Private Secretary, however, concluded his letter with a suggestion from Brian Cowen that, “...you consider taking legal advice as to the possibility of challenging in the Maltese courts what you see as omissions from the matters investigated by the Board of Inquiry or shortcomings in its procedures or its report.”
Seven years since the disappearance of Desmond, this latter suggestion is a ludicrous one, without Government support, given the huge costs my wife and I, now senior citizens, have already incurred without even the slightest Diplomatic assistance from our Government. With no public support, and little investigative interest to date from the media, it seems the Government can cast us aside and politely tell us that we are on our own and that our tragedy is of little interest to it within the greater scheme of international events. Nonetheless, our suffering is real and I know, if it was the Minister’s son who was missing, the full weight of the Government and the media would be supporting his determination for accountability and transparency on the part of the Maltese Government.
Based on our experience to date, the disquieting implications in all of this would seem to suggest that if you are a law abiding Irish citizen, travelling on an Irish passport and find yourself in trouble abroad, do not expect a FF/PD Coalition Minister or his Government to come to your assistance.
Yours faithfully
Cormac Boomer