New Omagh bombing atrocity inquiry launched into whether the 1998 ‘horror blast’ could have been avoided as some of the victims’ loved ones honour their memory years later
Grieving relatives of victims of Northern Ireland’s bloody Omagh bombing are praying a major inquiry will bring closure.
The 1998 Real IRA car blast killed 29 and injured 220 after a terrorist telephone call to police warning of the bomb resulted in victims being herded towards and not away from the bomb. Police failed to stop the killers and an horrific blast tore through the Saturday afternoon shoppers, even though security forces had the tip-off 40 minutes earlier.
It later emerged police were told about a blast but not where the car bomb was planted. Now some bitterly affected hope an inquiry starting this week will be the “beginning of the end” for the bereaved in their pursuit of answers.
The Real IRA was a breakaway terror group bitter over the Good Friday Agreement which was aimed at bringing peace and was signed four months earlier. Nobody has been criminally convicted for the blast, but the Real IRA claimed they did it and some men were found liable in civil actions.
In 2010 the only man jailed for Omagh, Colm Murphy, was freed following a retrial. But a year earlier he, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell and Seamus Daly were found liable and were ordered to pay £1.6m in damages to 12 relatives of victims. A fifth man, Seamus McKenna, was cleared of liability.
On Tuesday Irish Deputy Premier Simon Harris insisted his government “will not be found wanting” in supplying information to the investigation. He said: “Everybody in Ireland remembers the horror of that sunny August afternoon in Omagh, and today will be another stark reminder of the pain and suffering caused to so many families.
“Our absolute, overstated, clear aim here is to make sure that all questions are answered through this inquiry, and can I say I think today is a very, very difficult and painful day for the families, for the families of victims, for the families of the many that were injured. There will be a way forward, and we will all work to make sure that victims, their families, the people of Northern Ireland, the people of this island, get answers and get the truth.”
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was killed in the Co Tyrone town, urged the British and Irish governments to fully co-operate with the inquiry. He campaigned for years for an inquiry, and took the legal action which resulted in a judge in 2021 finding it was plausible the bombing could have been prevented.
Mr Gallagher said on Tuesday: “I hope that this is the beginning of the end, that we do get the answers we need, that both the British government and the Irish government fully co-operate with the inquiry and as a bereaved parent I can say that’s all I can do. I’m very grateful for everybody who helped us get to this point where we can see an end.”
Mr Gallagher also praised the focus on the victims in this phase of the inquiry as “bringing humanity” to proceedings. He said: “It’s important to be here to support the other families.”
The sister of a young Spanish woman killed said the public inquiry was “allowing us to close a wound that has been open for 26 years”. Rocio Abad Ramos, 23, from Madrid was among 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, killed in the dissident republican bomb attack.
She was on an exchange trip with young Spanish children to Buncrana in Co Donegal. They had been visiting Omagh on August 15 when the bomb exploded. Her sister Paloma Abad Ramos gave evidence to the Omagh Bombing Inquiry on Tuesday as it started commemorative hearings focusing on the victims and those affected.
Speaking through a translator, Ms Ramos said she hoped it will uncover what really happened, adding: “This is the only support that we’ve had for many many years.”
Completing her evidence, she said: “I on behalf of my family want to thank you, the inquiry, for this opportunity because you are allowing us to close a wound that has been open for 26 years”.
Ms Ramos recalled how her sister grew to enjoy Irish food, even exchanging recipes with those she had befriended in Donegal. Having travelled from Spain to give evidence at the inquiry at the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh, Ms Ramos said she had thought about how hard it would be to go to Omagh.
She said her sister gave her time to help others, including supporting vulnerable people. And she said when her parents left her sister at the airport, she was so excited to be going on the trip, adding:
“As our parents hugged and said goodbye to Rocio, little did they know that was to be the last time they would see their daughter alive. “
Ms Ramos said: “I was thinking it would be very, very difficult to walk along the street where the bomb had exploded, well this happened to us at the airport, the airport was the last place we saw Rocio alive.”
