* Irish Campaign for * Nuclear Disarmament
Feachtas um Dí-armáil Eithneach
http://indigo.ie/~goodwill/icnd.html P.O. Box 6327, Dublin
6, Ireland e-mail: irishcnd@ireland.com Telephone: 087-236 4312
Fax: 01-4977043
PRESS RELEASE 4th. August 2002
IRISH C.N.D. TO COMMEMORATE THE VICTIMS OF THE HIROSHIMA
BOMBING, 1945
1.00 p.m. Tuesday 6 August 2002
Merrion Square Dublin
Fifty-seven years ago the world witnessed the horrors inflicted on the people of Hiroshima when tens of thousands were killed by the atomic bomb. Since then the world has had to endure the constant fear of the of the destructive power of the nuclear process. Never, in that period of time, has the ever-present danger presented by nuclear weapons and waste been more real and alarming than it is today. The awful terrorist attack on New York last September has increased the vulnerability of all the world's citizens to the threat of total destruction.
Billy FitzPatrick, Chairperson of Irish C.N.D., calls on the government, and especially, the minister for Foreign Affairs, to work to have Sellafield closed and safely decommissioned, at a time when ships full of nuclear waste travel up the Irish Sea, putting all of our lives at risk. He also demanded that the Minister should use Ireland's position on the U.N.'s Security Council to campaign strongly for international peace. "The states with weapons of mass destruction are lining up for terrible conflict. At a time when American is threatening to attack Iraq and Pakistan and India are on the verge of war, there has never been a greater need for Ireland to reassert its traditional stance in international relations. The Habakushi (Japanese victims of nuclear radiation) who joined us for last year's ceremony, are a powerful reminder of the suffering even of those who 'survive' a nuclear attack."
The Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament will be holding its Annual Hiroshima Day Commemoration this Tuesday, August 6th., at 1.00 p.m. in Merrion Square Park, Dublin at the Hiroshima Memorial Cherry Tree, planted by C.N.D. in 1980, in the north-west corner of Merrion Square (the National Gallery end). The commemoration will be opened by the Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr. Brendan Carr, and speakers include Dr. John de Courcy Ireland, President of Irish C.N.D., and Billy Fitzpatrick, Irish C.N.D. Chairperson. Joseph Woods, Director of Poetry Ireland, will read some of his poems. Irish and German children will lay a wreath at the cherry tree. Irish C.N.D. Member Carol Fox is in Hiroshima this year and will be attending the commemorative ceremonies there.
Irish C.N.D. President John de Courcy Ireland pleads with people everywhere to work "to make this the first century to avoid the disgrace of nations going to war" by "plaguing their public representatives to have the courage to insist, ceaselessly till they win their case, that NO government of the twenty-first century has any right whatever to go to war."
Contacts: Billy Fitzpatrick, Chair, Irish C.N.D., 087-2364312
Brid McGrath 01-4977043 / 087-2476424
ENDS