Friday 17 May 1974 – The Car Bombings

On that fateful Friday Dublin was busy and bustling with the center city streets crowded with shoppers and visitors. A bus strike was in place adding to the crowded streets. The weather was good, and the weekend beckoned. Death was far from the minds of the populace. This illusion of tranquility was shattered in minutes by three car bombs. A car bomb is a frightening and vicious attack, and a no warning car bomb is at the upper end of that scale. The noise of the explosion is tremendous particularly in an urban setting and the death and destruction is truly horrendous.

 

Personally, I was a few hundred yards away when the car bomb exploded outside Liberty Hall, Eden Quay on the 1 December 1972. It is difficult to fully understand the real nature of these attacks unless one was proximate to them.

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Monaghan’s fate was to fall victim to a cross border bomb over an hour later but with equally devastating results. Many garda colleagues were working in Dublin and Monaghan and their personal accounts are recalled later.

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The timings were, Parnell Street: 1728, Talbot Street: 1730, South Leinster Street: 1732, and Monaghan: 1858