Families of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings yesterday gathered at a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the 31st anniversary of the atrocity.
At the memorial monument in Talbot Street, Dublin, the families gathered to remember the 34 people including an unborn child who were killed on May 17th, 1974, when four bombs - in Parnell Street, Talbot Street and South Leinster Street, Dublin, and in Monaghan - exploded.
Yesterday, relatives and friends travelled from all over the country to be present at the ceremony and to attend the memorial Mass which followed at the Pro-Cathedral.
Fr Thomas Clowe, chaplain to the Justice for the Forgotten group, led the prayers at the ceremony and he later celebrated the Mass.
A wreath was also laid by Biddy Turner from Thurles, Co Tipperary, who lost her daughter, Breda (21), in the Dublin bombing.
The families were joined by relatives of other bombing atrocities in the early 1970s.
Relatives of George Bradshaw (29), Co Tipperary, and Thomas Duffy (23), Dublin and Co Mayo, who were killed in the Dublin bombing of December 1972, attended with members of the Douglas family from Stirling, Scotland, whose relative, Thomas Douglas (21), died in the Dublin bombing of January 1973.
The families of Geraldine O'Reilly (15) and Patrick Stanley (16), who died in a car-bombing in Belturbet, Co Cavan, on December 28th, 1972, were also present.
At the Talbot Street memorial, the names of all the bombing victims were read out by Bernie McNally, chairman of Justice for the Forgotten.