The events that set two students on their political course

On the 70th anniversary of the V-E riot in Dublin, Ryle Dwyer notes how the burning of the Tricolour spurred two young UCD students and future taoisigh into action.

AT AROUND 2pm on this day 70 years ago, the BBC announced that Germany would formally surrender the following day. This would mark V-E Day, the end of the Second World War in Europe.

“The first intimation that many of the citizens of Dublin had that the war had come to a close was when a number of students made their appearance on the roof of Trinity College and proceeded to display the flags of the United Nations,” the Cork Examiner reported next day.