President Michael D. Higgins is today commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which took place on 17 May 1974.
The president is attending and speaking at ceremonies in Dublin and Monaghan organised by Justice for the Forgotten.
The president will meet with survivors and families of those who were killed in Dublin and Monaghan, as well as with families of those killed in a number of other bombings.
The Dublin ceremony is taking place at the Talbot Street Memorial. President Higgins will address the event and lay a wreath on behalf of the people of Ireland.
The Monaghan event will take place later at the victims’ memorial on Church Square in Monaghan Town, where the president will once again lay a wreath on behalf of the people of Ireland.
The Dublin and Monaghan bombings were the greatest loss of life in a single day during the Troubles, with 34 people, including a full-term unborn baby, killed and more than 300 people injured.
President Higgins will meet with survivors and families of the victims in both Dublin and Monaghan.
In addition to those injured and killed in the bombings of 17 May 1974, the president will also meet with families of some of those killed in 1972 and 1973 Dublin bombings, the Belturbet bombing in 1972, the Miami Showband massacre in 1975, the Dundalk bombing in 1975, the Castleblayney bombing in 1976, and the Widow Scallan’s pub attack in Dublin in 1994.
