FROM THE ARCHIVES:In the first decades of the Cold War it was not a question of "if" but of "when" there would be a nuclear war. In that context civil defence was a topic of real concern, as this report from 1961 indicates – JOE JOYCE
A FEW NIGHTS ago the Dublin Corporation Civil Defence Officer, Mr. M. W. O’Brien, said that the onset of the next war would be short, sharp and shocking. He warned that when it broke out there would be no time to train the large numbers who would come forward to offer their services for civil defence.
Yesterday an Irish Timesreporter endeavoured to obtain from experts a picture of the role of civil defence in a nuclear war. Some people have said that in such an event civil defence would be completely worthless, but the experts, while admitting that there is no effective defence, maintain that many lives can be saved from the after-effects of an attack.
To obtain a clear picture of the role of civil defence and the purpose of the training it might be well to visualise the position in Dublin if the city suffered a nuclear attack.
Presuming that a one megaton bomb was dropped in the area of O’Connell bridge (its destructive power would be equal to 1,000,000 tons of T.N.T.- the bomb dropped on Hiroshima equalled 20,000 tons), it would create a crater stretching from North Earl street to Trinity College, while a bank-up of debris and earth would be spread out in a circle touching the top of Grafton street, the Custom House, the Four Courts and Dorset street.
Within this area nothing would survive and in a belt outside that at a distance of 1½ miles from the crater centre there would be complete destruction of buildings. That would stretch as far as Portobello on the south, Kingsbridge on the west, Alexander basin on the east and Tolka Park on the north, and there is a possibility that there would be some survivors here.
Outside that again, in an area of 1½ miles to six miles from O’Connell bridge, there would be partial destruction and a big number of survivors could be expected. In the extreme outer circle, nine miles from the seat of the explosion, taking in Dalkey, Killiney, Swords and Lucan, damage would be light and casualties would be largely those injured by flying glass and similar hazards.
This picture shows the immediate effect of the explosion, but the secondary problem, the one with which civil defence would be vitally concerned, would be the accompanying fall-out of radioactive material. This comes into two categories. The initial gamma radiation would occur within the area where the bomb blast and its results would have destroyed all life in a split second. It is the residual radiation which is of vital concern in saving life. Fallout, it has been calculated, does not come down outside the centre area for three quarters of an hour, and in this period rescue operations must be pressed ahead with haste because the following 48 hours are critical with a heavy build-up of radiation level.
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