‘I thought bombs were just fireworks’

Fintan O’Hara was just seconds past the finishing line of the Boston Marathon when the first of the bomb blasts went off.

The Dubliner, 35, was running as part of a team from the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) and had just finished the race when the first of two explosions brought chaos to the city.

“I was literally about 50m across the finish line, getting some water from a volunteer, when the first bomb went off. I was facing the opposite way to the blast and I thought it was fireworks or something like that but when I turned to look at it I could see the smoke rising from the building.