PRESIDENT Michael D Higgins said the devastation caused by the no-warning Abercorn bombing in 1972 "will not be forgotten".
In a statement released yesterday to mark the 50th anniversary of the Belfast city centre bombing, he said it had "unleashed of course a whole series of atrocities".
Two young women were killed and 70 people were caught up in a blast which ripped through the popular Abercorn Restaurant on March 4 1972.
That year is seen as the worst of the Troubles, with major atrocities including the killing of 13 civilians in Derry by the British Army on Bloody Sunday and IRA bombings across Belfast on Bloody Friday.
The IRA did not claim responsibility for the Abercorn bombing, but were believed to have been involved.
In his statement, President Higgins said it was "important to be reminded that this is a level not only to which people can sink, but one that is using others as instruments".
He said that the bomb was detonated in "a restaurant used by people of all backgrounds, particularly by the young".
President Higgins added that the Abercorn bombing "unleashed of course a whole series of atrocities – they are known to us, the list of death and mayhem from that year 1972 is distressing to recall".
