The 72nd anniversary of the dropping of the US atom bomb on Hiroshima will be marked this Sunday at 1pm in Eyre Square. The event will also seek to raise awareness of the growing dangers of nuclear conflict.
The event will involve music, song, poetry, a talk, the chiming of the Hiroshima Peace Bell, and the hanging of origami peace doves on trees in the square. The event is organised by the Galway Alliance Against War.
“In July the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute produced its annual report on world nuclear arsenals and noted the trend is towards modernisation of nuclear weapons by the nuclear powers,” said GAAW spokesperson Niall Farrell.
“The Obama administration started this modernisation process by revamping the US nuclear warheads at a cost of over $1 trillion. This has resulted in a new nuclear arms race, the reason being the revamping of US warheads means it now has the capacity to destroy all of Russia’s nuclear silos while retaining 80 per cent of the US nuclear arsenal in reserve. The fear that the Pentagon has now made a ‘first strike’ nuclear attack central to its military plans has caused concern in Moscow as well as Beijing, and is directly linked to North Korea developing the bomb. There is only one solution: Ban the Bomb!”
