After quarter of a century, families of Omagh bombing victims finally get inquiry
Justice in sight? After quarter of a century, families of Omagh bombing victims finally get the inquiry they fought for
- The Omagh bombing was the biggest atrocity in the Troubles, killing 29 people
- The bomb was planted in a Vauxhall Astra in County Tyrone on August 15, 1998
The Omagh bombing will be the subject of an independent inquiry, the Government announced yesterday.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris confirmed he intends to establish the probe to investigate whether the attack could have been avoided.
The explosion was the biggest atrocity of the Troubles, killing 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins. The dissident republican bomb – planted in a maroon Vauxhall Astra in County Tyrone on August 15, 1998 – also injured hundreds of others.
Bereaved families have been calling for an inquiry for years.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden died in the Real IRA attack, brought the legal challenge that resulted in a judge directing the State to act.
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Security experts examine the charred remains of the vehicle thought to have contained the bomb which exploded in Omagh’s shopping area in Northern Ireland, August 16, 1998
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Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris confirmed he intends to establish the probe to investigate whether the attack could have been avoided
Mr Gallagher said: ‘This is an inquiry that we’ve been calling for really since 2001.’ He told BBC Radio Foyle: ‘We believe that there were serious security and intelligence failings and I personally believe that Omagh was a preventable atrocity, had the right action been taken in the lead-up to Omagh.’
The Daily Mail has long-campaigned on behalf of the families for both transparency and justice.
Two years after the attack, relatives announced in this newspaper their intention to launch a landmark legal action for damages and readers helped raise £1.2million – with the Government subsequently providing the extra £800,000 needed to bring a civil case.
The nine-year crusade – spearheaded by the Mail – resulted in a historic court victory in 2009 as families were awarded more than £1.6million in damages against four Real IRA terrorists over the bombing.
Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Mr Heaton-Harris said: ‘The inquiry will focus specifically on the four grounds which the court held as giving rise to plausible arguments that the bombing could have been prevented.’
The probe is expected to scrutinise the sharing of intelligence information, the use of mobile phone analysis, whether there was advance knowledge of the bomb and whether disruption operations could have been utilised to stop it.
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A police officer looking at the damage caused by a bomb explosion in Market Street, Omagh
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Omagh bomb campaigner Michael Gallagher speaks to the media at the Silver Birch Hotel in Omagh, Co Tyrone, after Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said he intends to establish an independent statutory inquiry into the 1998 Omagh bombing
He explained that he had listened to representations of those families affected by the atrocity alongside other factors, including its independence, cost to public purse and how best to ‘allay wider public concern’. Mr Heaton-Harris added: ‘The inquiry will also need to take account of the findings of previous investigations to avoid duplication.’
He said he accepted this is a ‘significant’ decision.
Labour welcomed the decision to open the inquiry, and said the Republic of Ireland had ‘a moral obligation to start their own investigation’. DUP MP Jim Shannon also called for the Irish government to open an inquiry into the attack.
Mr Shannon claimed the bomb was ‘planned and assembled and transported from within the Republic of Ireland’.
However, Mr Heaton-Harris said the UK Government could not compel the Irish government to open an investigation.