Families mark 25th anniversary of Omagh bomb with private service
- Published
The Omagh bomb exploded on a busy street on a Saturday afternoon in 1998
A moment of silence for families and victims of the 1998 Omagh bomb has been held in the County Tyrone town to mark the 25th anniversary of the attack.
Twenty-nine people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed by the bomb planted by the Real IRA.
Prayers were said at the glass obelisk marking the scene of the bomb on Market Street.
Some bereaved families laid flowers there at 15:10 BST, the time that the dissident republican car bomb exploded.
The ceremony took place 25 years to the minute after the car bomb exploded
A crowd of more than 100 people watched as the short ceremony took place.
Tuesday's event was organised by the support group Families Moving On.
It follows a public service on Sunday which took place in the town's memorial garden.
Twenty-nine people were killed by the bomb
A retired member of the Red Cross, who helped victims on the day of the Omagh bomb, said that she and four other colleagues made a pact not to work in medicine again after that day.
"Nothing ever prepares you for that - carnage is not even the word for what we witnessed," Ruby Sutherland said.
Ms Sutherland moved from Scotland to Londonderry in 1989 and helped to train and lead teams in the Red Cross.
Retired Red Cross worker Ruby Sutherland says she struggles to even go back to Omagh after the experience of that day
She told BBC Radio Foyle's The North West Today that she was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after trying to help those caught up in the blast.
"There was five of us who more or less swore that we couldn't do medicine any more after that," she said.
"We just honestly could not - the enormity of it was just so great on us and it affected our lives too much - that we just couldn't and didn't go back into medicine."
'My brother was murdered for no cause'
Claire Radford, whose 16-year-old brother Alan was killed, said "every anniversary is very difficult".
She said she would spend the anniversary with her family somewhere like the north coast where she has happy childhood memories of Alan.
"The 25th feels like the first, years may go on but but the trauma, everything is exactly the same," she said.
"I still feel like I'm that 15-year-old girl, the pain of it has never went away, it never will.
"It's just trying to over come every day, get up, get on with life as best as you can knowing that my brother was brutally murdered for absolutely no cause whatsoever."
Claire Radford said the pain of losing her brother never leaves her
Ms Radford said she appreciates the support that is shown on the anniversary but she feels that that same community spirit is needed all of the year.
"It doesn't just happen once a year, once a decade, or once every 25 years.
"We live and breathe this every single day and other innocent victims, like so many who have been affected throughout the years, need to be more at the forefront of peoples' minds on a daily basis and not just whenever big events are happening. "
'We don't talk about Anne anymore'
Stanley McComb described his wife Anne, who was killed in the bombing, as a "fabulous lady" who adored her two sons.
"We don't talk about Anne anymore, we just remember her," he said.
Mr McComb said that his son Colan who was at the scene of the bombing never spoke of what he saw. His other son Clive remained at home to care for him.
"Clive after all these years is still here, he never went his own way because he felt he had to stay and look after me."
Stanley McComb said his son Clive stayed at home to look after him
Clive McComb said the bombing was still fresh in his mind 25 years on.
"Omagh's always in the news but it's always in our heads every day, it doesn't have to be in the news to bring it home," he said.
"I would say to anyone who thinks 25 years is time to move on is walk in our shoes for a day, live what we have lived.
"It's a life sentence, that's what it is. Your life changes and it will never be the same from that day."
'We'll say a prayer for Philomena'
Kevin Skelton, the former chairman of the group, said he felt it was important to remember what happened at the site of the bomb.
He will lay a wreath to his wife Philomena who was among those killed on 15 August 1998.
However, he said this anniversary will be the last time he takes part in a public event linked to the bombing.
"We'll say a prayer, I'll lay a wee wreath at the memorial and that will be my thing done.
"It's very hard to think that it's 25 years," he said.
"That will be my last contribution."
Kevin Skelton was widowed by the bomb and spent years campaigning for justice
In 2009, a High Court judge found in a civil case that Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt was responsible for the Omagh bomb.
Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were also found liable for the attack.
The four men were named by Mr Justice Morgan in a ruling made as part of a landmark case taken by some of the families of the victims.
The 12 relatives were awarded more than £1.6m in damages for the attack.
The families have also lobbied the British and Irish governments to investigate whether they had sufficient intelligence to prevent the attack.
In February, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris announced the setting up of an independent statutory inquiry into the preventability of the Omagh bombing.
'I can sleep at night now'
Mr Skelton described the families' campaigns for truth and justice as "a rollercoaster".
"With a public inquiry coming up it's going to drag it on and on and on," he said.
"We've had so many false dawns, people charged and they walked and so many documentaries about what could've happened in the Omagh bomb and what didn't happen.
"I've actually stopped watching the news. I've stopped buying newspapers so I just don't bother anymore and to be honest it has helped me health-wise.
"I can sleep at night now when I go to bed and go to sleep without waking and that is a big change from what it was for the last 20 years before that."
In a statement on the 25th anniversary, Mr Heaton-Harris said news of the bombing of Omagh "reverberated around the world" in August 1998.
"While responsibility for this appalling crime lies with the murderers and those that assisted them, it is important that all lessons are learned and that confidence in this is given to the families of those affected, and to wider society," Mr Heaton-Harris added.
Tánaiste (Irish deputy PM) Micheal Martin said Ireland would co-operate fully with the UK inquiry into the bombing, which he described as "one of the most brutal atrocities ever witnessed on this island".
"The campaign of violence in Northern Ireland was never justified. We must keep working relentlessly on peace, dialogue and rebuilding trust", he said
"Justice for the victims and the families impacted by this atrocity will be at the heart of any action that the government takes."
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