“The people of Omagh deserve and demand to know the truth”

IT’S strange how we can all remember so much about where we were or what we were doing when major events happened.

August 15, 1998, is certainly one of those days. Now, as Omagh and the surrounding areas prepare for the start of the Omagh Bombing Inquiry tomorrow morning, many people will be reminded of the sheer horror of what happened nearly 27 years ago.

Everyone will have a story to tell, but by far the most important testimonies will be from the families of the 31 people who were killed on Market Street at exactly 3.10pm.

Over the next five weeks, they will have the opportunity to recall their loved ones, and officially perpetuate their memories.

What they say will be emotional and powerful.

Nearly 27 years have passed since that summer’s day in 1998.

Some say time heals all wounds and perhaps it does. But the passage of time has not dimmed the memory of loved ones taken far too soon in the most brutal manner imaginable.

We do not know at this moment what the families of those 31 people will say.

The nearly three decades separating 2025 from 1998 will certainly have brought many changes.

Many of those family members who felt the pain of that day so deeply have now also passed away to their eternal reward.

A new generation of sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and other family members are now carrying the flame of keeping the memories alive.

Many won’t even have been born in 1998 and some were too young to remember.

But all of them will have been told the stories, and learned about their relatives whose lives were cut so short in Omagh on August 15.

This public inquiry has officially been set-up to find out whether the Omagh bomb atrocity could have been prevented.

Over the coming year and indeed longer, there will be much harrowing evidence about that day.

Those who were first at the scene will tell their stories, and there will be evidence, too, from official sources including the British and Irish governments.

It is certain, that some key intelligence details will be kept from the public.

Nothing that happens at the Strule Arts Centre will bring those 31 people back.

Their lives were lost on that fateful day; the potential which each possessed has gone unfulfilled.

Their families have been left to pick up the pieces and are continuing to do that now in 2025.

Nobody has ever been convicted of murdering those 31 people on August 15, 1998. But there is still an important purpose to be served by holding this public inquiry and it matters immensely.

The past 27 years have witnessed many claims and counter-claims about what happened.

There are crucial questions to be answered. Did the Irish and British Governments allow the bomb to be prepared, transported and left in Omagh? What part did their respective intelligence services play?

The people of Omagh deserve and demand to know the truth and the hope and expectation is that they will get it from this inquiry.