Annual commemoration of Hiroshima bombing, Wednesday, August 6

This year we will mark the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, which took place on 6th August 1945. Irish CND will be holding the customary annual commemoration in Merrion Square in Dublin. 

The ceremony will take place at the memorial cherry tree in Merrion Square Park, at 1.10 p.m. There will be short speeches by Deputy Lord Mayor of Dublin John Stephens, Japanese Chargé d'Affaires in Ireland, Mr Norimasa Yoshida, and Irish CND vice-president Adi Roche (CEO of Chernobyl Children International). There will also be contributions of music and poetry, and a wreath of flowers will be laid at the tree at the close of the commemoration. 

Diplomats from several other countries are also expected to be in attendance, as well as representation from the Department of Foreign Affairs. 

An estimated 80,000 people were directly killed by the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, with casualties reaching 140,000 within a year, evidence of the catastrophic humanitarian impact of just one nuclear bomb. Approximately 12,500 nuclear weapons remain in the world today, more than enough to destroy life on earth as we know it many times over. Scientists estimate that the use of less than 1% of these weapons could result in more than 2 billion people facing long-term famine. No governments or aid agencies could cope with such a scenario.

Sadly, the dark shadow of the possibility of nuclear war looms more grimly than perhaps ever before. Within the past month, the stationing of US nuclear weapons in the UK has resumed. Spending on nuclear weapons reached more than $100 billion last year, a shocking new high. Nuclear weapons states are all engaged in modernising their arsenals and delivery systems. Five of the nine nuclear-armed states have engaged in international military attacks in the past three months alone. It would only take a moment of madness to plunge the world into an irreversible nuclear war.

Yet there are positive signs of progress. More countries continue to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) each year. The number of companies with significant investments in nuclear arms companies has dropped by a quarter since the TPNW entered into force in 2021. International support for disarmament is growing, even in apparently unlikely quarters, such as US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's recent statement on her visit to Hiroshima. Here in Ireland, 23 local authorities are now members of Mayors for Peace, with 16 new councils joining following the visit to Dublin last October of the Mayor of Hiroshima, Mr Kazumi Matsui. Light overcomes darkness. 

We must meet darkness with the light of positive hope and determination. This ceremony is an opportunity  to stand in solidarity with the victims of these horrific weapons of mass destruction, and to affirm the determination to work for their elimination, the only way to ensure that the ghastly events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will not be repeated.