Irish rock used in tribute

FAMILIES bereaved by the Air India disaster off Ahakista have strengthened their ties with the Co Cork village with the creation of a memorial monument featuring a piece of local rock.

The remembrance wall unveiled in the western Canadian city of Vancouver over the weekend incorporates a single black stone from Ahakista to mark the place where much of the wreckage of the bombed flight was washed up on shore.

The wall, which is inscribed with the names of the 331 passengers, crew and baggage handlers who died in the 1985 atrocity, is one of a series of memorials being erected at key locations around Canada to give families dispersed across the vast country a selection of places to grieve, remember and reflect.