The annual Irish commemoration of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place yesterday in Merrion Square. The event was organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and I was asked by the Lord Mayor to formally open the ceremony. Before my election to Dublin City Council I worked in the area of nuclear weapon disarmament, both in Ireland and abroad, so it was an occasion of particular relevance to me and I was honoured to be there on behalf of the citizens of Dublin. Below you can read my brief remarks at the commemoration.

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Welcome and thank you for coming.

It seems to be a facet of humanity, of human history, that we are determined to learn by our mistakes – by making mistakes. We must lack the capacity of rational or reasonable forethought because it is through error that the great lessons of our race are learnt.

But perhaps the greater tragedy behind this fact is that there are those among us who do not learn at all. In the corridors of power, in many countries, today, people are making arguments for the possession of nuclear weapons, for the acquisition of nuclear weapons, for the retention of nuclear weapons, and even for the use of nuclear weapons.

Good ideas have their time. But bad ideas, unfortunately, have many. And with every step that we take away from 6 August 1945, the opportunity for this particular bad idea to come to the fore again increases.

That is why we are here today. That is why it is so important. I’m too young to remember the attack on Hiroshima. My parents are too young to remember it. My grandparents remembered it, but they are dead. What then when all our grandparents are dead, and our parents and ourselves. What then of this most important piece of our history – so important in fact that our future histories depend on its remembrance.

We must remember. Because in remembering this horrific event, in reminding the world that it happened, we hope to see that it can never happen again.

That hope is not enough on its own unfortunately. Much else needs to be done. We need a test ban treaty. We need a fissile material cut off treaty. We need greater transparency over existing stocks. And we need a realistic and time bound plan for getting to zero, for the elimination of every nuclear weapon from this earth. And what we need, as Irish people, is for our government to reassert its moral authority again and to distance itself from our European allies – two of whom are weapon possessors – when it comes to this most important issue. We once led the world on the necessity of nuclear disarmament. Unfortunately, no more. We need to find that voice again, that courage and that commitment.

But for today at least, we recall this terrible memory, this most shocking of human acts, and we hope together that the world may never witness another like it.

Thank you.