“He never got the chance to do all the things he had planned”

Alan Radford’s was just 16 on the afternoon of August 15, 1998, when he headed into Omagh from the family home in Castleview Park in Killyclogher with his mother Marian.

Speaking at the Omagh Bombing Inquiry this morning, his sister, Claire, vividly remembered the final time that she saw him alive just before he left for the town centre at around 1.30pm on that Saturday nearly 27 years ago.

He was, she said, ‘her other half.’

“That Saturday was completely different for me. I had been to a school disco the night before with my friend. But we just came home that morning,” she said.

“Alan came in and sat down. He was always in impeccable order in what he worse. I remember him sitting in the living room putting on his white shocks and shoes. The sun behind him was so glorious coming in the window.

“The two of them, Alan and his mother, then went walking out the back hall. I can still remember telling him to get his haircut. He said ‘okay sissa. I love you. I’ll see you later or I’ll see you sometime’.

“I sat watching them walking up the park and Alan went down and knocked the window. He went to the top of the garden. They locked the gate. That memory will last with me forever, but it was such a short space of time.

“The Real IRA murdered Alan Radford at 3.10pm on August 15th 1998. He never got the chance to do all the things that he had planned to do.”

Mrs Hayes went on to recount how her brother, Paul, had gone into Omagh that day and helped with the rescue efforts, but never found Alan.

It was only the followed day that there was a phone call to the family home at Castleview asking them to go to the Lisanelly Army Barracks to identify his body.

“My brother Paul and sister Elaine, along with Paul’s two best friends went in to identify Alan#s body. He was lying covered in a tartan blankey. Paul knew it was hime by his hair,” Mrs Hayes added.

Alan Radford’s brother and sister also paid their own special tribute to him on the second day of the hearings.

Their mother, Marian, remarked that he was ‘just the best son.’

His nieces and nephews said that they wished that they had known him.

Mrs Hayes concluded by saying that there were no words for the immense grief that she felt now.

“My life has been shattered without him. Alan would only have wanted justice, peace and for human kindness to prevail.

“For those whose actions have caused our mother to have been put through this hell and suffering for those to be held accountable and for those who caused this carnage to be made to face the consequences.”