Sinn Féin spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Defence John Brady has said that today’s 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima Bomb should serve as a reminder that Ireland must use its place on the UN Security Council to campaign for nuclear disarmament.

Speaking today, Teachta Brady said: “We have just witnessed a devastating explosion in Beirut, the magnitude of which has shocked people throughout the world. 

“Today, we remember the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima in the dying days of World War II – a blast incredibly more powerful than that which took place in Beirut. 

“Japanese casualty estimates of the atomic blast suggest that just under a quarter of a million people died following the bombing, many from the blast itself, and many more from the effects of burns, radiation sickness and cancers arising from the bombing. 

“While it is argued that the attack on Hiroshima, coupled with the bombing of Nagasaki three days later, brought about the Japanese surrender that ended WWII, the events have left an indelible mark on our collective global consciousness.

“Today all legislators and lawmakers carry this warning from history with them. Since that fateful day in 1945, nuclear and atomic weapons have been detonated on over 2,000 instances, for testing and demonstrative purposes.

“The damage caused to the environment has been devastating. In 2017, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute stated that there were approximately 14,456 nuclear weapons in the world.  

“Our country, small as it is, has had a proud history on the international stage of offering opposition to nuclear proliferation. 

“And now, as Ireland prepares to take its place on the UN Security Council, it is an appropriate moment for the Irish government to commit to using its membership to continue the work to bring an end to these weapons of devastation.”