Man who lost wife in Omagh bomb recalls terror
A MAN who lost his wife in the Omagh bomb has spoken about the traumatic aftermath of the incident which almost led to him taking his own life.
Kevin Skelton lost his wife Philomena in the bomb and in the immediate aftermath of the blast believed he had also lost his three daughters.
The family had been in the Co Tyrone town shopping on August 15, 1998, when the bomb exploded. Some 29 people were killed, including a woman who was pregnant with twins, and hundreds were left injured.
A memorial event to remember those killed and injured will take place today at the site of the bomb today at the exact hour it detonated, 20 years later.
Mr Skelton had just left his wife and daughters to go to another shop when the bomb exploded.
“I remember it as if it was yesterday, we were looking for brown shoes for Shauna, then across the street into SD Kells, that’s where I left my wife and girls and went into Mr Gee’s.
“As I turned to come out again, that’s when the bomb went off, the window was sucked out and I walked out after it.
“I went in what was left of Kells window and found her [his wife] lying face down in the rubble. I thought my daughter was buried underneath her because she had been standing with her mother, I couldn’t find Tracy, I couldn’t find Shauna and I couldn’t find Paula. I thought they were all gone.
“When I lifted Mena’s arm and dropped it, I knew that was it, but the next time I ran back in again, Tracy was beside her mother on her knees, she’d been further down the shop and got knocked out, but someone had taken Shauna away to the hospital, and Paula was on down near the corner.”
Mr Skelton runs a victims group called Families Moving On to help support those affected by Omagh, as well as other terrorist attacks.