This is the first meeting of the Seanad since the tragic events in Dublin and Monaghan recently when four car bombs were exploded with such fatal results. I feel sure that every Member of the Seanad would desire that we should place on record here today —the first opportunity we have had —our very sincere sympathy with the relatives and friends of those who were killed and those who were maimed in those deplorable events. The other House of the Oireachtas has already recorded the views of everybody there when, at a recent meeting of the Dáil, the spokesmen for the various parties referred to this matter. I do not wish to make a speech about it. I know we would all like to record our sympathy.
I feel we would also like to go on record—and I think it is up to all of us to say this—as condemning in the strongest possible terms the deplorable events which led to the carnage in the city of Dublin and in Monaghan. I do not see, and I do not think any of us can see, how happenings of this kind can advance the cause of any section of the Irish people, North or South. Until all of us see these events in their proper light as callous murders we are in danger of witnessing further events of the same sort. On the other hand, so far as the people in this part of the country are concerned—and I am sure this is true also of the vast majority of the people in the North— happenings of this kind will only steel the determination of the people to try to rid our society, North and South, of violence, hatred and division. I would like again to express to the relatives and friends of those who were killed, injured and maimed the sincere sympathy of this House.
