Bomb survivor: “I selfishly wanted to find my friends alive”

THE OMAGH Bombing Inquiry this morning heard more accounts from survivors of the atrocity.

A public inquiry into whether the 1998 atrocity – which claimed the lives of 31 people – could have been prevented has been taking place at the Strule Arts Centre.

Three people who were in the town on August 15 1998 and witnessed the devastating aftermath of the explosion gave personal accounts of their experiences, and how they have been affected over the past 26 years.

Omagh man, David McSwiggan, was in the town with friends on that afternoon.

Although he suffered a number of relatively minor injuries, he said the scenes and trauma which he witnessed that day have lived with him throughout the past 26 years.

“Suddenly an immense force seemed to bring the bricks of the building tumbling, disintegrating around us. A dark, dusty, smokey blackness just seemed to envelope everything. Then heat and fire,” he told the inquiry.

Mr McSwiggan said that he had been horrified by the thought that his friends must be among the dead or injured.

On a number of occasions, he had started looking at the dead or injured to see if he could recognise his friends by their clothing or hair colour.

“Suddenly an immense force seemed to bring the bricks of the building tumbling, disintegrating around us. A dark, dusty, smokey blackness just seemed to envelope everything. Then heat and fire,” he told the Public Inquiry,” he said.

Mr McSwiggan said that he had been horrified by the thought that his friends must be among the dead or injured.

On a number of occasions, he had started looking at the dead or injured to see if he could recognise his friends by their clothing or hair colour.

“I selfishly wanted to find my friends alive. I couldn’t cope with what I was experiencing. I felt terrible that I wasn’t doing anything to help the injured,” he added.

Mr McSwiggan said that in the years which have followed, he has never felt relaxed enough to feel safe, and would be passive and unresponsive when energy was required.

“How could I seek sympathy, care or understanding for myself when I hadn’t been torn apart, burnt, killed or had that done to a family member.

“Sometimes I thought maybe I did die or maybe it would have been better off for everyone if I had died there.”

Local newsagent, Jim Sharkey, was in his shop on Market Street when he was blown off his feet.

In the minutes prior to the bomb, he had just spoken to four of those would be killed – Sean McGrath, Libby Rush, Geraldine Breslin and Ann McCombe.

“I keep thinking if Sean, Libby, Geraldine and Ann had stayed where they were would they have been safe,” Mr Sharkey said.

“I met Kevin Skelton. He kept saying Mena. Have you seen Mena? I will never forget the look on that man’s face. I will never forget it.”

Some people believed that Mr Sharkey had been killed in the explosion, including Fr Kevin Mullan.

He offered his condolences to Mr Sharkey’s children at Mass the following morning, not knowing the popular local man had survived.

Lisa McGonigle was working as part of the children’s carnival on the day of the bombing.

She was at the chapel when the bomb exploded and said she knew something was ‘badly wrong’ when she saw two police vehicles passing the then health centre on the Mountjoy Road with legs lying out of the back.

“A friend of mine’s wife came towards us. She was covered in dust and said don’t go near the town, it’s bad. The children were coming, running and crying,” she said.

At the Tyrone County Hospital, Mrs McGonigle, said people were going towards the Accident and Emergency Department ‘in their dozens’.

“I went over to the out-patients and I saw a girl I knew. She couldn’t hear and her leg had been blown off. She was so calm lying on the bed. I couldn’t understand it. I learned later that she had been blown through the shoe shop window.”