Book of condolence opens in Dublin over ‘senseless’ Spanish attacks

Many of those who arrived to sign the book of condolences for Barcelona terror attacks at Dublin’s Mansion House on Friday were foreigners who arrived clutching maps.

Spanish couple Sol Pinilla and Carlos Hidalga, from Terrassa, a city in the province of Barcelona, were among the early signatories.

They had been worried about their son and only child who was in Cambrils, in the province of Tarragona, when the second incident took place there late on Thursday.

Mr Hidalga took a photograph of the Spanish flag and the book of condolences in the hall of the Mansion House as Ms Pinilla explained they had been unable to contact their son on Thursday night. “But we have spoken to him now and he is alright,” she said.“It is is so sad. How can we defend ourselves? We can not defend ourselves from this,” she said.

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Juan Miguel (34) from the south of Spain said people had anticipating an attack for the last number of months.“Our people were waiting because it’s in Britain, in France, we have the experience in 2004 in Madrid” he said. Mr Miguel is to fly home on Saturday, and said watching the news unfold from abroad was “very difficult”.

Sinead Burke from Co Meath signed the book alongside her husband and their two young children. Every summer the family visits Cambrils, the coastal town where a second terror attack took place some hours after the attack in Las Ramblas.

‘It rattled us’

“It really, really shocked us this morning because we’ve literally walked that square, that roundabout, every year with our kids for the last eight years. It rattled us, more than the other terrorist attacks, because we could have so easily been there” Ms Burke said. The family said the attacks would not stop them returning to Spain.

Alfie and Catherine Byrne have travelled to Barcelona numerous times in the past. “It’s a beautiful happy city, and it’s a terrible thing for human beings to do to other human beings,” Mr Byrne said.

Mrs Byrne said the “awful worry” was that the same thing could happen here on O’Connell Street. She said terror attacks should not stop people travelling and enjoying themselves abroad, “if we had planned to go today or tomorrow we still would be in Barcelona”.

‘Horrified’

The book of condolences at the Mansion House will remain open on Saturday from 12pm to 4pm and on Monday from 10am to 4 pm.

Lord Mayor of Dublin Micheál Mac Donncha said he was "horrified to hear about the attacks on the people of Barcelona and Cambrils".

Among many public figures to express condolences on Friday was Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. “An attack of this nature, targeting the people of Barcelona and visitors enjoying that wonderful city in the height of the tourist season, is both wanton and cowardly and has no place in our society.

“At this time of immense grief, I want to offer our solidarity and support to the people of Spain, with whom we have such close relations.”