Thanks for the memories, Danny. But didn’t you forget a very ugly one?

AUGUST 15 (the Feast of the Assumption) is fondly remembered by Danny Morrison (Irish Examiner, August 18). The bonfires, the innocence, sense of identity and... memories.

Ah yes, the memories. Even the ‘pogroms’ when Catholics were targeted by loyalist gangs. But, strangely, not a word about the single worst atrocity of the troubles - the Republican bombing of Omagh on a certain August 15, 1998, which left 29 people dead and the ideology of the ‘armed struggle’ in tatters.

Of course, memory is selective. For many, August 15 is remembrance of Liberation Day for Allied prisoners in Japan. And for me, it will always be the anniversary of the untimely death of a loved one in Canada.

What makes the Omagh atrocity significant, I believe, is that it finally cut the ground from under the IRA.

The more the Provisionals tried to distance themselves from the fall-out from the atrocity, the more people were entitled to ask, “what was your bombing campaign all about then?” Ah, yes, memory. We’ve forgotten it already.

Richard Dowling

Patrick Street

Mountrath

Co Laois