Remembering Hiroshima: annual commemoration, 6th August 2026

This year we will mark the 81st 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. 

There will be short speeches by Lord Mayor of Dublin Daryl Barron, Japanese Counsellor and Deputy Head of Mission in Ireland, Mr Koji Hirohata, and Afri Board member, Dr Patrick Bresnihan (Maynooth University). 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. Both Irish CND and Afri are members of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN, Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2017), so it is very fitting that both organisations are involved in the commemoration this year. 

An estimated 80,000 people were directly killed by the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, with casualties reaching 140,000 within a year. 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.

Sadly, the dark shadow of the possibility of nuclear war looms more grimly than perhaps ever before. Spending on nuclear weapons reached more than $119 billion last year, a shocking new high, with more than half of this expenditure deriving from the United States. The last nuclear arms control treaty between Russia and the United States was allowed to expire in February 2026. 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 year alone. It would only take a moment of madness to plunge the world into an irreversible nuclear war.

We must meet darkness with the light of positive hope and determination. We look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to our commemoration in Merrion Square, remembering over eight decades of solidarity in the face of nuclear destruction. Wherever you are, even if you are not in a position to join us in person this year, please do join us in spirit to stand in solidarity with the victims of these horrific weapons of mass destruction, and to affirm our determination to work for their elimination, the only way to ensure that the ghastly events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will not be repeated.