Teenager was working in charity shop when killed in the bomb

ONE of the 31 people killed in the Omagh bombing was a 17-year-old girl who worked voluntarily in two charity shops.

Members of Samantha McFarland’s family, including her cousin, Gerald, her brother, Richard, and her father Gerald, watched her pen-portrait at the public Inquiry today at the Strule Arts Centre via the live stream of proceedings.

Samantha, who lived at Hospital Road in Omagh, was described as a lovely person, a young girl with a kind heart whose confidence inspired and encouraged confidence in other people as well.

The Omagh High School student enjoyed a love of music and books, had her own pony and encouraged geography due to her curiosity about other parts of the world.

On August 15, 1998, she was working in the Oxfam charity shop with her friend, Lorraine Wilson, who was also killed as a result of the explosion.

“She was said to have been friends with and had a love for people of all denominations and all ages,” her pen-portrait added.

At her funeral at Lisliminaghan Church outside Omagh, she was described as someone who had touched the lives of so many others.

Lord Turnbull, chairman of the Inquiry, said one really had to wonder if there could be any greater contrast between the generosity and social sense of Samantha who was spending what little precious time of her young years to trying to help those with advantages less than herself and the morality of those who would walk away from a car loaded with explosives in the middle of the main street on a sunny afternoon in the sure knowledge that devastation would ensue shortly thereafter.