Survivors and relatives of the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings need to have their stories heard, the President, Mrs McAleese, said yesterday.
Speaking at the opening of an exhibition in Dublin on the Troubles, she said there were many people for whom the bombings "are a legacy with which they deal . . . all day, every day. It is right that we should listen to their pain."
The exhibition, "Do You Know What's Happened?", traces the 30-year history of the Troubles through the words and experiences of its victims.
Initiated in Belfast last November by the Cost of the Troubles Study, a research project based in the University of Ulster, it has been expanded to include a section on the two bombings in the Republic which occurred 25 years ago this week.
Mrs McAleese said that "in bringing these stories to the memory today, we remind ourselves that grief can ambush us many years after the event and that forgiveness, if it comes, needs to be renewed, refreshed and recommitted to time and again."
She said the tragedies documented in the exhibition could have been avoided if people had made different choices, and she urged people now to "make the kind of choices which build up decency, respect, hope [and] true equality".
The director of the exhibition, Ms Marie Smyth, said it offered people a chance to see "what life is like for many of our fellow citizens whom we have never met or had a chance to speak to".
Relatives of some of the 34 people killed in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings attended the event, which was hosted by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Senator Joe Doyle.
The exhibition can be viewed at Dublin Corporation's civic offices at Wood Quay between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays until Friday, May 28th.
