Shop worker fatally injured in Omagh bomb apologised to husband as she lay dying
Shop worker fatally injured in Omagh bomb apologised to husband as she lay dying
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A “one in a million” mother fatally injured in the Omagh bomb apologised to her husband moments before she died, a public inquiry has heard. Geraldine Breslin’s son Gareth McCrystal, speaking publicly about her death for the first time, told the inquiry into the 1998 attack that the shop worker was “authentic, genuine, kind and loved”.
Mr McCrystal recalled the horrific moment his stepfather Mark told him his 43-year-old mother, whom he always believed to be “immortal”, had succumbed in hospital to the severe injuries she suffered in the Real IRA bombing. Then 15, the family had decided it was best that Mr McCrystal did not see his mother in the hours after the bombing as medics battled to save her life.
When her coffin was brought back to the family home in Omagh for a wake it was closed due to the extent of the injuries. Mr McCrystal, now 42, told inquiry chairman Lord Turnbull that at the time it was “torture” not being able to see his mother. But he said he has since made peace with the fact, as his final memory of her is as she was before the atrocity.
Mr McCrystal described their relationship as “fantastic”. “I adored her,” he said. “I loved her unconditionally, and she loved me unconditionally. I worshipped her. “We were very, very close. I was her only child and she was very protective of me, as any mother is with any child.
