The husband of one the victims of the 1974 Dublin bombings told the Dublin Coroner’s Court of the “confusion” and “horror” on the streets of Dublin the night his wife was killed.
"We looked for my wife for several hours. There was confusion about where the bodies of the people were, if they were in Jervis Street Hospital or the morgue. We didn't know what to do, " Mr Timothy Grace told the inquest into the Dublin and Monaghan bombings yesterday.
Mrs Breda Bernadette Grace had left her one-year-old son at home with the husband in Portmarnock, to go shopping. She was returning to her car on Gardiner Street at 5.30 p.m. when she was killed by the Talbot Street bomb.
"My son was a year old, he never knew his mother, I don't know anyone else who never knew their mother." The bomb had a "devastating effect" on both their lives, Mr Grace said, and he would never forget the chaos in Dublin that night. "The horror of Dublin that night is something I never wish anyone in this room to encounter."
Mr John Dargle, known as Jack, had fought in and survived the first World War, "but couldn't survive a stroll down his own city in the afternoon without being bombed to oblivion", his grandniece Ms Peggy Watchford said. 83-year-old Mr Dargle was killed in the bomb at Parnell Street, which exploded just minutes before the Talbot Street bomb.
"I don't think anyone was with him when he died," she said.
Mr Michael McCarthy told how his 20-year-old sister Ms Collette Doherty had gone into town with her two-year-old daughter Wendy.
Ms Doherty, who was due to give birth to her second child on May 19th, was killed on Talbot Street on May 17th. "We never found out what happened to the unborn baby. Wendy was found wandering around the streets hours later."
Ms Concepta Dempsey was working in Guineys in Talbot Street when the bomb exploded. She was carried from the building, her niece Ms Gertie Shields said. She remained on life support in the Mater hospital until June 8th, 1974, when she died. Ms Shields asked the jury to remember that each of the 34 victims was part of a loving family and not just part of the number of people who died on a certain day. "I want to say how happy I am to come to this day where there is an actual inquest after all these years."
Mr Patrick Doyle lost four of his family in Parnell Street. His sister, Ms Anna O'Brien and her two children Jacqueline and Anne-Marie, were killed instantly, his brother-in-law, Mr John O'Brien died later in the Richmond Hospital. Mr Aidan Shields told how his mother, Ms Maureen Shields, had gone to collect his father from work, when she was killed. Mr Leo Shields had been working in Guineys and phoned home to let his wife know he was all right. He was told by his son: "Mammy's not home I think she's gone to collect you." He died 22 months later.
