Omagh bombing

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Omagh bombing
The red Vauxhall Cavalier carrying the bomb. This photo was taken by a tourist shortly before the explosion, the camera being found in the rubble afterwards.
Location	Omagh, Northern Ireland
Target(s)	Marketplace
Date	August 15, 1998
Attack Type	Car bomb
Fatalities	29
Injuries	approximately 220
Perpetrator(s)	Real IRA

The Omagh bombing was a car bomb attack carried out by the Real IRA on August 15, 1998, in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The Real IRA comprises a splinter group of former Provisional Irish Republican Army members opposed to the peace process marked by the Belfast Agreement. Twenty-nine people were killed as a result of the attack, including one woman who was pregnant with twins, and approximately 220 people were injured.^[1] The attack has been described as "Northern Ireland's worst single terrorist atrocity".^[2]

The victims included people of both Catholic and Protestant denominations, and also included Spanish tourists and others on a day trip from County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.

1 Chronology
2 Warnings
3 Police Ombudsman Report
4 Responsibility
5 Memorials
6 See also
7 External links
8 Notes

[edit] Chronology

The Vauxhall Cavalier carrying the bomb, was parked outside a clothes shop on Omagh's Market Street at 2.00pm. It had previously been stolen in Carrickmacross, County Monaghan a week before, it then had its Republic of Ireland number plates replaced with Northern Ireland plates. The driver and another occupant left the car and walked down Campsie Road.
At 2.30pm the first warning was received by an employee of UTV in Belfast. After passing the information to the RUC, the employee received another warning three minutes later. At the same time another warning was given to the Coleraine office of the Samaritans.
At 3:10pm the bomb detonated.

[edit] Warnings

On the day of the bombing, three warnings were recorded and reported:

Received by Ulster Television at 14:30

"There's a bomb, courthouse, Omagh, main street, 500 pounds, explosion 30 minutes."

Received by the Coleraine office of the 'Samaritans' charity at 14:32

"Am I through to Omagh? This is a bomb warning. It's going to go off in 30 minutes." (followed possibly by further pieces of information not recorded, including that the location of the bomb was allegedly 200 yards from the courthouse).

Received by Ulster Television at 14:35

"Bomb, Omagh town, 15 minutes."^[3]

There has been considerable debate about the subject of these warnings, the tapes of some warnings have not been released to the public, and some information about the location of the bomb may have been recorded incorrectly or ignored. Several warnings mentioned that the bomb was 200 yards away from the courthouse, the actual bombing was between 300-400 yards from the Courthouse.

[edit] Police Ombudsman Report

The Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, strongly criticised the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) over their handling of the investigation. Her report stated that RUC officers had ignored previous warnings about a bomb and had failed to act on crucial intelligence. She went on to say that officers had been uncooperative and defensive during her inquiry into the investigation. RUC officers had been seen moving people towards the bomb, which they claimed was because the warnings had been for the Courthouse.^[4] On 24 February 2006, it was alleged that an agent paid by MI5 and the FBI, knew of the plan to bomb Omagh, but that MI5 never passed this information to police.^[5]

The Mirror report that initially, the Police Association, which represents senior officers and rank and file members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), went to court to try to block the release of the O'Loan report, but dropped their efforts after being given more time to review the report before its release to the public.

However Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan stated that the multiple warnings were given to cause confusion and ultimately a greater loss of life.^[6] Flanagan resigned following the O'Loan report.

[edit] Responsibility

After the attack the Real IRA claimed "minimal responsibility" for bombing the courthouse at Omagh, and later released a statement claiming two MI5 agents were largely responsible for the bombing.

The BBC's Panorama programme, Who Bombed Omagh?, shown in 2000, gave the names of the prime suspects as Séamus McKenna, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, and Seamus Daly. It is believed that the bombing of BBC Television Centre in London was a revenge attack for the broadcast.

Builder and publican Murphy, from County Louth, was charged and convicted in 2001 by the Republic's Special Criminal Court for "conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause injury". He was sentenced to fourteen years. In January 2005, Murphy's conviction was quashed and a retrial ordered by the Court of Criminal Appeal, on the grounds that two Gardaí had falsified interview notes, and that Murphy's previous convictions were improperly taken into account by the trial judges.^[7]

Many of the others were later sued in a civil action by the relatives of people killed in the bombing, including the families of James Barker, 12, Samantha McFarland, 17, Lorraine Wilson, 15, and 20-month-old Breda Devine.

Wikinews has news related to:

Armagh man charged with 1998 bombing murders

On September 6, 2006 Sean Hoey, an electrician from Jonesborough, County Armagh went on trial accused of 29 counts of murder, as well as terrorism and explosives charges.^[8]

[edit] Memorials

The bombing inspired the song "Paper Sun", by rock group Def Leppard, as noted in the commentary of their album Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection.

Another song inspired by the bombings was "Peace on Earth", by rock group U2, and includes the line "They're reading names out over the radio. All the folks the rest of us won't get to know. Sean and Julia, Gareth, Ann, and Breda." The 5 names mentioned are five of the victims from this attack. Another Line, "She never got to say goodbye, To see the colour in his eyes, now he's in the dirt", was about how James Barker, a victim, was remembered by his mother Donna Maria Barker in an article in the Irish Times after the bombing in Omagh.

Omagh maintains a memorial garden in the town centre.