THEY came in their thousands carrying shopping bags, flowers, children. By 3 p.m. yesterday more than 3,000 people had signed one of the five condolence books at Independent House in Middle Abbey Street in Dublin, Catherine Cleary reports.
A mounted black and white picture of Veronica Guerin was taped to the wall and along the window there were three front pages, with the advertising slogans of Independent Newspapers underneath.
The first showed her last story on the murder of Det Garda Jerry McCabe, the second an account of her own murder and the third had yesterday's latest headlines. Bunches of flowers were lined up along the window, some had written cards and one was addressed to her husband.
One read: "To Veronica, you were brave and kind. It's why, you were culled from this, world."
Behind the open door was the front page story by Ms Guerin on February 5th, 1995. "I believed I was about to die," the headline read, "It was terrifying.
Down in Liberty Hall, where the National Union of Journalists had opened a book of condolences, security men talked about colleagues who left in tears. The same picture was pinned up over the book and three large bunches of flowers had been placed in vases.
At Dail Eireann, bouquets of flowers lay along the ground and a single red rose had been carefully tied to one of the railings. Tourists mingled with passers by, some close to tears, as they had the notes and cards.
The placing of flowers to the Dail apparently followed an item on Joe Duffy's morning show on Radio One yesterday, after a caller to the programme suggested the Dail as a suitable place for tributes, both for its familiarity and because of the Taoiseach's emotional address to the House on Wednesday.