A State commemoration for the victims of the Dromcollogher cinema fire in Co Limerick will take place in September to mark the centenary of the disaster.<\/p>\n
On 5 September 1926, 48 people died when a candle ignited highly flammable nitrate film in an upstairs cinema in the town.<\/p>\n
The fire wiped out a tenth of Dromcollogher’s population and remains one of the deadliest fires in Irish history.<\/p>\n
Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport Patrick O’Donovan, has announced the launch of the Dromcollogher Commemorative Programme to mark the 100th anniversary.<\/p>\n
The principal event will be a formal State-led commemoration in Dromcollogher on Saturday 5 September, accompanied by a wider programme of national and community initiatives.<\/p>\n
Minister O’Donovan, who is from west Limerick, said it is his sincere hope that the programme and commemoration will honour both the dead and the survivors in a respectful and meaningful way.<\/p>\n
“The people of Dromcollogher have never forgotten the tragic events of 100 years ago,” the minister said. “In that fire, people lost parents, children, siblings, friends, neighbours.”<\/p>\n
The Dromcollogher 26 community group have played a central role in the planning of the commemoration.<\/p>\n
Gerry Keyes, chairman of the Dromcollogher 26 group, said the announcement of a State commemoration is warmly welcomed.<\/p>\n
“It will be a fitting and respectful tribute to the 48 people who lost their lives here and to all the families whose lives were impacted,” Mr Keyes said.<\/p>\n
“This honour to the memory of the people who were lost also serves to recognise the historical importance of this tragedy and will help ensure that this event of local and national significance is not forgotten.”<\/p>\n
A national commemorative postage stamp will be issued in September, featuring an image of a funeral procession through Dromcollogher as part of the commemorations.<\/p>\n
The National Archives of Ireland will present an exhibition centred on the Dromcollogher Disaster Relief Fund Collection.<\/p>\n
The collection includes committee records, correspondence, financial documentation, letters of sympathy, photographs, newspaper cuttings and records relating to support provided to victims\u2019 families following the tragedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A State commemoration for the victims of the Dromcollogher cinema fire in Co Limerick will take place in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-504604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}