Five more lost lives to be remembered at Omagh bomb inquiry today

Families of five more victims of the Omagh bombing will today get the chance to tell their story at the inquiry into the atrocity.

The current stage of the Omagh Bombing Inquiry involves testimonies from relatives and friends of those killed in the 1998 Real IRA attack.

Thirty one people, including unborn twins, were killed when a huge car bomb exploded at Market Street in Omagh on August 15, 1998.

The victims remembered today will be Aiden Gallagher, Ann McCombe, Olive Hawkes and father and son Fred and Bryan White.

Aiden Gallagher, 21, had gone to a shop in Omagh town centre on the day of the bomb to buy some clothes.

He had studied car bodywork at Portadown College and spent two years building up his own firm.

Aiden, whose father Michael who led the calls for the establishment of a public inquiry into the bombing, would normally have been working on a Saturday afternoon but changed his plans and decided to go into town with a friend instead.

Ann McCombe, 48, was a shop assistant at Watterson’s drapers in Omagh.

She was killed while she was on a tea break with her colleague Geraldine Breslin.

Olive Hawkes, 60, was a married mother of two who was killed while doing her regular Saturday shopping in Omagh.

She was a Methodist church treasurer for 20 years and had been due to celebrate her ruby wedding anniversary just days after the bombing.

Bryan White was last seen alive with his father Fred leaving a shop on Market Street.

The 27-year-old was a qualified horticulturist and was due to start a new job the following week.

Fred White was a treasurer in the Omagh Ulster Unionist Association and was widely respected in the local area.