West Cork remembers Air India disaster at 40th anniversary commemoration
A memorial service was held at the Air India 182 Memorial Garden in Ahakista on the Sheep's Head peninsula, West Cork, to mark the 40th anniversary of the Air India disaster. Picture Dan Linehan
"When you walk down this path you feel love, not hate,” was the comment of Canada’s UN ambassador Bob Rae, at the 1985 Air India memorial at the little village of Ahakista, West Cork, this morning.
Mr Rae had prepared a report on the disaster, the result of a terrorist bombing of the Toronto to Delhi flight, entitled ‘Lessons to be Learned’.
One of the lessons he had learned, he said, was that the disaster had resulted in a showing the ‘strength of the love that we show for each other’.
Mr Rae was one of several speakers at the 40th anniversary commemoration of what was described today as the worst act of terrorism in Canada’s history.
When the bomb exploded at 8.12am Irish-time, just off the south west coast, all 329 men, women and children on board were killed.
First responders who arrived on the scene, and the Irish naval service, had expected a rescue mission but instead were faced with a recovery task.
Babu and Padmini Turlapati, who lost both their young boys, Sanjay and Deepak, in the disaster, spoke to the 300-strong crowd, and shared memories of the two boys who had boarded the flight on their own, hoping to enjoy a summer holiday with their grandparents back in India.
The couple have been coming to Ireland every year since 1985 and lay a wreath at 8.12am every June 23 at the coastal memorial, which has a monument naming all the victims. They say the visit brings them peace and makes them feel a little closer to both boys, especially Deepak whose body was never found.
The commemoration was attended by dignitaries and politicians from Ireland, India and Canada, including the Indian minister for petroleum and natural gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, representatives of the Irish Navy, Coast Guard and Gardaí, the Canadian mounted police.
Also present was the Canadian minister for public safety and emergency, Gary Anandasangaroe, who recalled the silence that surrounded his street in Toronto that morning in 1985, where the mostly Indian population greeted the news with silence first, and then tears.
Taoiseach Michael Martin, who also addressed today's gathering, told afterwards that the disaster took place the year he was first elected to Cork City Council.
He recalled the sense of trauma and shock on the day and the aftermath of the disaster, when the bodies were brought back to Cork Airport and the-then Regional Hospital, now CUH.
Mr Martin also spoke of the links that have since been forged with the local people and the friendships that been grown as a result – a theme echoed in many of the speeches on the day.
Speaking to today senator Jerry Buttimer, who had been a porter at the Cork hospital at the time, said that he started that Sunday morning’s work not realising it would become one of the most traumatic in his working life.
Children from the local Rushnacahara national school performed three pieces of music at the end of the speeches, ‘Lament’, ‘Morning is Broken’ and ‘Let it Be’ and there was a laying of wreaths on behalf of the families, the emergency services, the community and others.
Later some family members spread flowers on the water’s edge, as the sun began to emerge over Dunmanus Bay.
In a very poignant tribute to the families, the Coast Guard helicopter from Waterford did a flyover of the memorial to close the ceremony, while, earlier, naval vessel the LE William Butler Yeats marked the beginning of the commemoration with a salute, at exactly 8.12am.
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