A former newsagent in Omagh has told how the “world stood still” in the moments after a massive car bomb devastated the town centre in 1998. Giving evidence to the Omagh Bombing Inquiry, Jim Sharkey said members of his family were told that he had been killed in the confusion which followed the explosion that blew in the front window of his shop and knocked his wife out of her shoes. Mr Sharkey said he had been working with his wife Celine in his shop in Market Street in the Co Tyrone town on the day of the bombing.
He said they became aware of a bomb alert further up the town but had continued to serve customers. Among the people he saw that day were Geraldine Breslin, Ann McCombe and Sean McGrath, who were all killed by the blast. Referring to Mr McGrath, he said: “He was a great bloke. Someone I would have gone to for advice.”. Mr Sharkey added: “Next thing I knew the front window just came in around us.”.
He said he was blown off his feet by the explosion and his wife was blown out of her shoes. He added: “A young boy was at the drinks fridge, a stone or a piece of shrapnel narrowly missing him. “He ran out of the shop so scared. “The world stood still for 30 or 40 seconds. “Then all the noises filled my ears. The screams, the alarms, the ringing.”. Mr Sharkey said he went outside and was “running about in a daze”.
He said his oldest son was in the street and shouted to him, but he didn’t hear. He added: “I went back to the newsagents and all I could see in the street was bodies lying everywhere, a lot of people screaming, ambulances arriving. “When I came back onto the street I met Kevin Skelton. He kept saying ‘Mena, have you seen Mena? I’ll never forget the look on that man’s face, I’ll never forget it.
“His wife, Philomena, was found dead in the S D Kells shop on the opposite side of the road from my newsagents.”. Mr Sharkey was taken to hospital, which he compared to a “war zone”, and discharged later on the Saturday. He said: “I had been talking to Geradline and Ann outside my shop. If they had stopped where they were outside my shop, which was only yards away from the bomb, maybe they might have been safe.
“Just after the bomb, my late sister, who had been walking across the bridge, she met someone who told her that I had been killed. “My children were going to mass the next morning and they were greeted by the late Father (Kevin) Mullan. He said to them he was sorry to hear about their dad.”. Mr Sharkey told the inquiry he still suffers from nightmares and was diagnosed with tinnitus. He said: “It was so warm that day we had the back door open of the shop and that saved our lives.
“I think we would have been sucked out onto the street if the back door had not been open.”. Mr Sharkey said he returned to his shop a few days later but soon decided to give up the business, adding: “Following the bomb I just couldn’t face going back there any longer. “I don’t go into the town centre now late on a Saturday afternoon or early evening any more. I avoid it, it brings back so many memories.
