Omagh bombing 'horror' update as grieving Northern Ireland relatives herald new inquiry
Omagh bombing 'horror' update as grieving Northern Ireland relatives herald new inquiry
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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.
