The Air India Memorial Garden is located here and each June the local community remembers the terrorist attack of 1985 that resulted in the deaths of over 300 people . Just after 08:00 on Sunday 23 June 1985 an Air India Jumbo jet flying from Canada to India and carrying 329 people – most of them Canadian citizens of Indian origin – was approaching the southwest coast of Ireland when it was blown apart by a bomb , killing everybody on board – men , women and children . In the days that followed , a huge search was carried out by ships , planes and helicopters . Only about half the bodies were ever recovered and they were brought to the Regional Hospital in Cork . Shortly afterwards , many relatives of the dead flew from India and Canada and travelled by bus along the coast in order to be near to the place where their loved ones died . At Ahakista , they stopped and threw wreaths into the sea . They expressed a wish that some type of memorial be erected to commemorate the disaster and in the months that followed , Cork County Council purchased this site and built a memorial . It was officially opened on 23 June 1986 at a ceremony attended by the Foreign Ministers of Ireland , India and Canada . A commemoration is held each year on 23 June at 08:00 . The sundial , designed by Cork sculptor , Ken Thompson , is the focal point of the garden and the sun hits the dial at the exact minute of the explosion
terrorist attack of 1985
Air India Flight 182
Ahakista