Relatives of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings today heard the distressing medical reports of the wounds their 34 loved ones suffered in the devastating blasts.
The Dublin City Coroner, Dr Brian Farrell, began reading the harrowing autopsy reports with the 11 people who died when the Ulster Volunteer Force bomb exploded on Dublin's Parnell Street on May 17th, 1974.
Dr Farrell told the hearing there was a good deal of distressing evidence in the medical reports.
"We will hear all of the autopsy reports as it is the wish of the families that all of the reports be placed on the public record," he said.
The coroner then read how the other victims died from the bombs planted in parked cars on Talbot Street, Leinster Street and the blast in Monaghan.
Many of the family members didn't attend today's inquest, as a complete list of the wounds each victim suffered from the four-explosions was read out.
The autopsy report of Marie Butler, a victim of the Parnell Street bomb, was the first to be heard.
The coroner at the time Dr Patrick Fitzpatrick described many lacerations on the 21-year-old civil servant, including a large piece of shrapnel lodged in her lower ribs.
In the report, Dr Fitzpatrick stated, death in my opinion was due to multiple injuries.
The court heard how the Parnell Street blast claimed four members of the one family, including a toddler and a baby.
The inquest jury finished hearing the autopsy reports this evening. Dr Farrell is expected to instruct the jury tomorrow on all the evidence they heard during the inquest.
The jury is expected to deliver an official finding on the cause of deaths over the next few days.
PA