DUBLIN MONAGHAN BOMBINGS

The scene in Leinster Street
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My wife Nora and myself have a particular memory of that day. Were it not for the Pan-Celtic festival in Killarney and our membership of the Dublin Welsh Male Voice Choir, we could have been in the middle of the explosion in Leinster Street.

Nora worked in Comhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge in Fenian Street and I worked in Government Buildings and, were it not for the festival, we'd have been making our way after work to the Berni Inn at the Grafton Street end of Nassau Street.

We only learned of the explosions when we reached Killarney later that evening.

My first reaction, apart from anger, was the feeling that the British were somehow complicit in this. It was not a popular view when I expressed it. The choir was made up mainly of Welsh men with a sprinkling of Scots, English and Irish.

I think, however, in view of what has emerged over the years, that it was not such an extraordinary view as it appeared at the time.

The Dublin Welsh Male Voice Choir in Killarney