Hopefully we’ll get answers & we can move on
Omagh bombing inquiry ordered
THE British Government yesterday ordered an independent inquiry into the 1998 Omagh bombing.
Northern Ireland Minister Chris Heaton-harris made a Commons statement yesterday in response to a court judgment that directed the Government to establish some form of probe.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden died in the Real IRA attrocity, took the legal challenge that resulted in the judge directing the state to act.
The dissident republican bomb exploded in the Co Tyrone town on August 15, 1998, killing 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. Hundreds more were injured.
Mr Heaton-harris said he had listened to representations of those families affected by the bombing alongside other factors, including its independence, cost to public purse and how best to “allay wider public concern”.
He told MPS: “I have informed Mr Gallagher and members of the Omagh Support and Self Help Group, as well as representatives of Families Moving On of this decision.
“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 inquiry will also need to take account of the findings of previous investigations to avoid duplication.”
Mr Gallagher welcomed the announcement.
He said: “The Secretary of State has given us everything that we have asked for, and we’re very appreciative of that.
“It’s still sinking in, to be honest. I think it’s going to be a long time to come to terms with the fact that we’re going to hopefully get the answers that we need and we can move on.”
Mr Gallagher said the probe announced did amount to a full public inquiry.
He added: “My understanding is that it is a public inquiry, it’s a judicial inquiry with powers of investigation and that’s exactly what we wanted. This is not a case of deflecting the blame from those who are responsible – that was the criminal terrorists who planned, prepared and delivered this bomb into Omagh.
“What we’re looking at is the failings of the people that are there to protect us.”
He said reliving the events of Omagh through the inquiry would be “difficult” and “painful” for the families, but added: “If we don’t have this process, for the rest of our lives we’re going to be wondering ‘what if ’.”
Labour welcomed the decision and said Ireland had “a moral obligation to start their own investigation”. However, shadow Northern Ireland secretary Peter Kyle said the move clashed “with the Government’s overall approach to legacy issues” as set out in the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill.
He added: “The Secretary of State has put Omagh families at the heart of today’s decision. I’m worried that other victims of atrocities during the Troubles will be watching and wondering why their loved ones are not being treated in a similar way?”
Mr Heaton-harris responded: “I actually do believe that we are being consistent. What has happened is that for hundreds, if not thousands of families, 25 years since the Troubles ceased and the Belfast Good Friday Agreement came into effect, there has been no justice and no information about what happened to their loved ones in that period of time.
“Investigations might have come and gone, but to no result for those families.
“And what the Legacy Bill hopes to do [is] give those families, if at all possible, at least some information about what happened to their loved ones at this time.”
DUP MP Jim Shannon also called for the Irish Government to open an inquiry into the bombing.
He said the bombing was “planned and assembled and transported from within the Republic of Ireland”.
He asked: “Would the Secretary of State agree that unless there is such an investigation it is unlikely that the full truth about what happened that day will be brought to light?”
Mr Heaton-harris told MPS the UK Government could not compel the Irish government to open an investigation.
But he added: “We are talking to each other on a whole range of different issues in a much more constructive way than we have done for a decent while.”
Alliance MP Stephen Farry urged the Secretary of State to ensure the inquiry’s terms of reference had “flexibility”, in case it needed to be expanded.
Secretary of State has given us everything we have asked for MICHAEL GALLAGHER SPEAKING YESTERDAY