I am reprising this April 26, 2013, post to help commemorate the 40th anniversary of this, the modern-day 'Troubles' deadliest atrocity. Feel free to comment on the day's significance in WG's Forum.
                                        -- Ger, May 17, 2014

Hearing the many and poignant eyewitness and survivor accounts of yesterday's synchronized bombings in Boston brought to mind for me my only direct experience with terrorism -- when on May 17, 1974 I left Trinity College's library only to find myself in the geographic center of three bombs that erupted in the heart of the city. Fortunately for me, I was out of range of all three, but not by much, especially when I later considered how familiar I had become with the three bomb locations. Here is an article I wrote about my admittedly dim recollections of the specifics of that day 25 years after the fact, which I offer in the spirit of reflection on the dearness of life, lived a day at a time, for it is but by the grace of God that we live to see the next. And I invite you to share your own experience(s) with politically inspired violence in our Forum.

Left, aftermath of the car bomb explosion on Leinster Street, Dublin, May 17, 1974, one of four exploded that day.