At Ahakista, the Air India Disaster Memorial is the site of a memorial garden established in memory of the victims of the 1985 Air India disaster.
Air India Flight 182 was an Air India flight operating on the Montreal–London–Delhi route. On the 23rd June, 1985 the airplane operating on the route, a Boeing 747-237B, was blown up by a bomb at an altitude of 9,400m and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean while in Irish airspace.
A total of 329 people were killed, including 280 Canadians, 27 British citizens and 22 Indians. The incident was the largest mass murder in modern Canadian history.
The memorial garden and sundial erected here in Ahakista mark the special relationships that have developed between the families and the local community in the intervening years. The sundial was sculpted by Cork sculptor Ken Thompson and was donated by the people of Canada, India and Ireland.
The memorial garden is the site of an annual commemorative event, when families from Canada, India and the UK gather with people from the Sheep’s Head peninsula and Bantry to remember those lost in the tragedy.
