Irish President Visits Ira Victims

Irish President Mary Robinson visited devastated shops and met a young bombing victim Saturday in a gesture of reconciliation three weeks after an Irish Republican Army bombing.

“It was an attack on a civilian population - that is not in the name of any Irishness I represent as president of Ireland,” Robinson said. “I think I represent the true spirit if Ireland in coming here in friendship and solidarity to Manchester.”

Fifty-seven shops reopened for business Saturday but about 300 others are still closed due to damage from the bombing on June 15. The IRA parked a truck full of explosives near a shopping center, and the Saturday morning blast in the industrial city 180 miles northwest of London injured more than 200 people.

Robinson gave a teddy bear to 7-month-old Sam Hughes, who was among the injured, and his parents, Lisa and Perry.

The Irish leader also lit a candle at the city’s Anglican cathedral, which suffered $380,000 in damage, mostly to stained glass windows.