Irish Independent April 28, 2004 Families tell court about last hours of bombing victims  Lorna Reid Michael Byrne, whose wife Marian was killed, arriving at the inquest with  his daughter Michele and son Trevor. Maura Fay, right, who lost her  husband is accompanied by son Pat.  HARROWING descriptions of the last hours of the Dublin bomb victims were  given by their relatives yesterday at the opening of the inquests into  their deaths almost 30 years ago.  The Dublin City Coroner's Court moved to the Distillery Buildings to  accommodate the large number of relatives and friends as the formal  proceedings inquiring into the deaths of 34 people in Dublin and Monaghan  on May 17, 1974, got under way.  One by one, the relatives took the oath before city coroner Dr Brian  Farrell as he told them the purpose of the inquests was to inquire into  how, when and where the deaths of their loved ones occurred.  There was a brief moment's silence in the courtroom after the names of  the 34 dead were read out, and then Dr Farrell told the jury the inquests  into the deaths had been opened on May 27, 1974, and adjourned without a  date for resumption.  The hearings are expected to take at least two weeks, and Dr Farrell told  the jury they would first be hearing from the bereaved families who lost  loved ones at Parnell Street, South Leinster Street and Talbot Street in  Dublin and from those who lost family members in the blast in Monoghan  town on the same day.  The inquest opened by hearing how a young Dublin family was wiped out in  one of the three blasts which rocked the capital.  John O'Brien finished work early on the day of the bombing. He took his  wife Anna, and two young daughters, Jacqueline and Anne Marie, into town  from their Sherriff Street flat.  But the Parnell Street bomb claimed the lives of the family and yesterday  Mrs O'Brien's brother Patrick Doyle recounted his search for the family,  only to discover they had all been killed.  "The gardai said they would not like us to see the bodies at the morgue,"  Mr Doyle recalled, adding that his family also wanted to know why it had  taken 30 years to get this far.  Patrick Fay's habit of buying petrol at the same petrol station meant  that he was in Parnell Street on that fateful Friday evening.  His son Patrick told the inquest his father had just been getting change  from the petrol pump attendant, Derek Byrne, when the bomb exploded.  "Mr Byrne was seriously injured but my father was killed. It has affected  our family very deeply, and even when the names were read out today it  has brought it all back," Mr Fay said.  Tomasino Maglioco was only three years old when his father Antonio died  in the Parnell Street explosion. The Italian, who owned a takeaway, had  just returned with supplies for his business when the bomb exploded.  His family returned to live in Italy in 1983.  Peggy Watchford said yesterday she barely remembered Jack Dargle, who was  83 at the time he was killed. "My granduncle survived the First World  War, but it was a bomb in Dublin which sent him into oblivion," she said.  Lily Fitzgerald suffered failing eyesight and her husband Christopher  accompanied her as they went shopping in Parnell Street on May 17, 1974.  Ms Fitzgerald stopped to talk to an acquaintance and became another  victim of the Dublin bombings, and her husband was seriously injured.  Mrs Fitzgerald died in the Richmond Hospital on May 19. Mr Fitzgerald,  who never fully recovered from his wife's death, died in July 1977, their  niece Helen Twohig told the inquest.  "The bomb was a contributing factor to Christopher's death," she said.  Statements from family members of other victims, including Ann Byrne,  Concepta Dempsey, Breda Grace, Siobhain Roice, Maureen Shiels, Josie  Bradley, Mary McKenna and Thomas Cambell, were also read into the record.  The inquest continues today.