Omagh bomb inquiry: Families hold ‘promising’ meeting

A NUMBER of Omagh bomb families have secured a commitment from the new Secretary of State to consider a public enquiry into the 1998 blast.

Chris Heaton-Harris gave the pledge in a high-level meeting at NIO offices in Belfast on Tuesday with the Tyrone campaigners and their solicitor. However, he requested a four month time frame to report back to them.

An NIO spokesperson said the Conservative MP was ‘very grateful for the opportunity to meet and hear from the Omagh Support and Self Help Group’.

Six members of the group from the Gallagher, White and McCombe families spent over an hour with the Secretary of State setting out the case for a public enquiry and how the events of August 15, 1998 had impacted them.

It is the first formal engagement by Mr Heaton-Harris with the Omagh bomb controversy.

The pledge follows the landmark legal ruling last October by Belfast High Court which took ten years to deliver after campaigners took the British Government to court.

The court ruled that there was a plausible prospect of preventing the attack which claimed 31 lives. Mr Justice Horner ordered a fresh probe into the Omagh atrocity, citing failure to properly use intelligence or surveillance.

Speaking to the UH following the meeting, Michael Gallagher described the encounter as “constructive and promising.”

“The Secretary of State was fully engaged and very approachable. He has promised to come to Omagh to deliver and explain his decision in four months’ time and needs this period to consider all the relevant documents and court materials.”

Mr Gallagher described the meeting as robust and business-like, with the survivors providing powerful testimonies about the aftermath of the bomb and its human impact.

Families also expressed continued frustration with persistent delays and hope that the response from the NIO would be forthcoming early in the new year.

“We have been waiting over 24 years for answers and Omagh has been one of the most investigated events of the Troubles,” Mr Gallagher said.

“We left the Secretary of State in no doubt as to what is required. We do not want Omagh to be re-investigated,” said Mr Gallagher. “But a public enquiry is necessary to examine how security and intelligence was managed in the lead-up to the bomb. We need to know what, how and why it happened.”