ATTORNEY General John Larkin has turned down a request by some relatives of people killed in the Enniskillen bomb to reopen the inquests.
Twelve people died when the IRA bombed a Remembrance Day parade in the Co Fermanagh town in November 1987.
The Impartial Reporter newspaper yesterday said that this request has been turned down.
In a statement Mr Larkin’s office said the “Attorney General’s practice is normally not to disclose inquest decisions”.
The application is not believed to be linked to the recent revelation that the Irish government received a letter after the bomb attack claiming British intelligence was aware of it.
Recently released Irish government papers reveal that days after the explosion then Tánaiste Brian Lenihan received a letter from someone claiming to be an MI5 agent stating that the agency knew about the bomb before it was placed.
A solicitor for those who made the application said it was constructed to cover a “series of fundamental issues that the original inquest would have considered”.
“This was a detailed, well considered and balanced application, but unfortunately the Attorney General’s office has communicated to the families that he does not consider the holding of a further inquest is advisable at this time,” he said.
The solicitor said that relatives have “voiced some serious concern at this decision”.
“It leaves rumours to persist concerning who carried it out, the main characters and so on.
“These rumours continue to cause great distress to families,” he told the Impartial Reporter.
A spokeswoman for the Attorney General said: “The Attorney General’s practice is normally not to disclose inquest decisions and the reasons for these decisions other than to those directly affected such as the Coroner, relatives of the deceased person who have sought an inquest or their representatives.
“It is, of course, open to the persons who are made aware of the Attorney General’s reasons for his decision to direct an inquest to disclose those reasons to other persons including journalists.”
Ken Funston, Advocacy Service Manager for South East Fermanagh Foundation, which advocates on behalf of the majority of those bereaved by the bomb, said the group was not privy to the application to Mr Larkin.
He said his group will meet with relatives to “discuss their perspective on recent developments and to then best represent their interests".
