Buttevant memorial - Fitting ways to honour the dead

Eighteen remembrance candles flickered into life for each of the victims of the worst tragedy in Irish transport history, in one of the moving ceremonies held yesterday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Buttevant rail disaster.

Family members and friends of the victims gathered to solemnly reflect on those who perished in a tragedy which shocked the nation, and the dreadful consequences of which spanned international borders.

As well as the 11 Irish people who died, there were three British, two American and two Austrian visitors who also met their deaths so tragically in the North Cork station, and who were represented at the ceremonies.

They were killed when the Dublin-Cork Irish rail express train crashed into a siding at 70mph at Buttevant Rail Station on August 1, 1980, a date that will be forever evocative for those who survived, and for the families of those who died on that fateful bank holiday.

The Buttevant disaster, which also injured 70 people, still stands as the worst transport tragedy ever to have occurred in Ireland, galvanising the biggest civil emergency operation in the history of Co Cork.

The town recalled the occasion with an open-air ecumenical service and the names of those who died engraved on a five-foot high bronze-cast memorial, which was unveiled in the station.

It was fitting that this memorial was commissioned by Irish Rail, as it was that the occasion was attended by representatives of the services which responded so gallantly and courageously to the appalling event.

Eighteen roses were planted to symbolise that the memory of the dead will endure the exigencies of time, and to remind others of the fragility of human life.