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The conference is available on our YouTube channel (click here)

On Saturday 29th of November, 2014, the northern Italian city of Brescia hosted a conference on the Dublin and Monaghan bombings (17th May 1974,) which focused on the similarities these coordinated attacks bear with the Piazza della Loggia bombing, which hit Brescia on the 28th of May 1974.

The conference is organized by the National Association of Partisans of Italy (Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d’Italia, ANPI) and by the Casa della memoria, the association of the Piazza della Loggia bombing victims’ families.

The Piazza della Loggia bombing was a bomb attack that took place on the morning of the 28th of May 1974, in the heart of Brescia, during an anti-fascist protest. The terrorist attack killed eight people and wounded over 100. The bomb was placed inside a litter bin at the east end of the piazza.

The first judicial inquiry led to the sentencing in 1979 of a member of Brescia’s far-right movement. However, this first sentence was cancelled in 1983 and the suspect acquitted in 1985 by the Supreme Court of Cassation.

A second investigation led to the accusation of another far-right activist, who was acquitted in 1989 because of insufficient evidence.

A third investigation is still ongoing. On the 19th of May 2005, the Court of Cassation confirmed an arrest warrant against Delfo Zorzi, a former member of the Ordine Nuovo neo-fascist group, who had previously been tried but acquitted of involvement in the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing which marked the beginning of the so-called “strategy of tension” in Italy. Carlo Maria Maggi and Maurizio Tramonte, both members of Ordine Nuovo, are also suspected of involvement in the Piazza della Loggia bombing. The presence of Tramonte in the place at the time of the blast has been confirmed in 2008 by the results of an anthropological forensic test on a picture taken that day.

Last May marked the 40th anniversary of the bombings. Starting from the close proximity in time of these massacres (11 days,) and the death in Dublin of an Italian immigrant, Antonio Magliocco, killed by the Parnell Street blast, we reflected on two important issues which tie these two episodes: the involvement of state security forces, and the impunity which has left those who were wounded, the bereaved and their families without truth and justice for 40 years.

We discussed these issues with a panel of experts from Italy and Ireland:

 

SILVIA CALAMATI

Free-lance journalist (RaiNews24), author, Silvia Calamati is one of the most prominent voices on the Irish question in Italy. She has translated One day in my life by Bobby Sands (Un giorno della mia vita, Feltrinelli, 1996), and Renewing the Irish Church by Father Joe McVeigh (Guerra e liberazione in Irlanda. La Chiesa del conflitto, Edizioni della Battaglia, 1998). She is the author of Irlanda del Nord. Una colonia in Europa (Edizioni Associate, 2005) (“Northern Ireland. A Colony in Europe”). Her latest book, Neve e fango per dissetarmi. Il diario di Sotiris Kanellopoulos, partigiano della Guerra civile greca (1° marzo – 17 maggio 1949) (Socrates, 2014) is about Greek Civil War partisan Sotiris Kanellopoulos. (More on Silvia Calamati here.)

MARGARET URWIN

Co-ordinator of Justice for the Forgotten, the Dublin-based organisation campaigning for truth and justice for the victims of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. Since 2010, JFF has been part of the human rights’ organisation, the Pat Finucane Centre, based in Derry. (More on JFF here.) Margaret Urwin is the author of The Effects of the Great Famine (1845-9) in the County Wexford Parish of Bannow/Ballymitty (Wexford Historical Society, 1996), A County Wexford Family in the Land War: The O’Hanlon Walshs of Knocktartan, (Four Courts Press, 2001), The Murder of Charles Daniel Boyd, in Hanging Crimes, (Mercier Press, 2005), COUNTER-GANGS: A history of undercover military units in Northern Ireland 1971-1976. (SpinWatch/Pat Finucane Centre, 2013).

MANLIO MILANI

President of the Casa della memoria, has been campaigning tirelessly in the pursuit of truth and justice for the victims and relatives of the Piazza della Loggia bombing. Manlio Milani narrowly missed death on May 28th, 1974, but lost his wife Livia Bottardi in the explosion. His commitment has been recognized with an important award conferred by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano in April 2013.

GIULIO GIORELLO

Full Professor of Philosophy of Science at the University of Milan, Giulio Giorello is also President of SILFS (Italian Society of Logic and Philosophy of Science) and columnist for the Corriere della Sera. He is the author of numerous essays on contemporary epistemological issues. With Marco Mondadori he edited the Italian edition of J.S. Mill’s On liberty, (Il Saggiatore, 1981). With Pietro Adamo, he edited the Italian translation of Young Irelander John Mitchell’s Jail Journal, (Giornale di prigionia, P. Lubrina, 1991). Giorello has been interested in Irish history, culture, society, and politics for many years.

The conference was introduced by Romano Colombini, President of ANPI Brescia’s Education Commission (Commissione scuola), followed by Giulio Ghidotti, President of ANPI Brescia, and Carlo Gianuzzi, member of the Commissione scuola.

(Click here to download a copy of the poster)

Interviews:

• Ermanno Redeghieri, a retired teacher, took part in the demo and was standing yards from the explosion. He saw his colleagues and comrades killed by the blast that spared his life by sheer coincidence only. (In Italian, with English subtitles)

• Bruna Franceschini, a retired teacher, witnessed the aftermath of the bombing as she left home in a hurry and went searching for her husband (who survived,) and their colleagues and comrades, some of whom were among the casualties. (In Italian, with English subtitles)

• Laura Castelletti, Deputy Mayor of Brescia, was only a girl when her father picked her up from school and took her with him to Piazza della Loggia, less than 90 minutes after the explosion. Laura Castelletti remembers the strong impact this made on her, and reflects on the importance that this massacre had on her life and her political involvement. (In Italian)

• Emilio Del Bono, Mayor of Brescia, was also a young boy at the time of the bombing. In his interview, he reflects on the impact the Piazza della Loggia bombing had on the city, and the importance to keep alive the memory of what happened in Brescia on that tragic day. (In Italian)