“Why did I survive?” asks woman injured in Omagh bombing

SURVIVORS and firefighters today gave evidence on the final day of this part of the public inquiry into the 1998 Omagh bombing atrocity.

The inquiry, which is trying to find out if the bombing could have been prevented, is being held at the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh.

Mary Gormley, who was from Killyclogher but has now lived in Australia for 20 years, sustained a serious wound to her leg as a result of the explosion.

She says that to this day she tries not to think of the moment of the bomb.

She feels that the communication with those injured has been poor, and said that the promises of dignitaries who visited Omagh in the immediate aftermath of the bomb to find those responsible have never been fulfilled.

“Why did I survive? Why did I escape the scene? How did I leave my friends, workmates? What if my mum was with me, would I have left her?” she said.

“This guilt played on me often and for a very long time, years, but now I can manage it mostly.

“I have two beautiful daughters and I’ve had to share with them parts of my story. They’ve seen my scars. I see my indented leg, but I am not alone in this and I feel that mine is insignificant compared to so many.”

Simon McLarnon pulled a piece of shrapnel from his head, and said the impact of what happened and what he saw on August 15, 1998 is still with him.

“I could not walk up Market Street even after it re-opened and I avoided the town centre. I would have nightmares about what I had seen and I felt useless, guilt, anger, and depressed about my inability to help anyone on the day of the bomb.”

Helen Kerr told of how she had been for a coffee at Grinders went the bomb exploded, causing her to be cut in the face.

She went outside and remembered people running, screaming for their friends and lying injured on the street.

“Although it seems so long ago to me, it is also as if it happened recently,” she said.

Taxi-driver Anne Cullen described the town as being like a ‘war zone’ on that day.

“I will never forget it,” she said.

She helped some of those who were injured and later went to the Tyrone County Hospital to assist the efforts there.