Jan. 28 (UPI) — An independent public inquiry into a 1998 bombing in Omagh in Northern Ireland in which 29 people were killed and 220 injured, the worst atrocity of “The Troubles” in the U.K. province, got underway Tuesday with hearings allowing family members to commemorate their loved ones and make impact statements.
Those injured or directly impacted will also be able to testify over the next four weeks at Omagh’s Strule Arts Center in morning and afternoon sessions set aside to run Monday through Thursday each week, with around 60 people in total expected to take part, the inquiry said in a news release.
The first witness will be Paloma Abad Ramos who will remember her sister, Rocio Abad Ramos, who was 23 when she was killed while leading a youth English-language exchange program to Ireland along with one of his charges, 12-year-old Fernando Blasco Baselga.
Michael Donaghy, an attorney, will read a statement on behalf of Fernando’s family.
Wednesday’s afternoon session is set aside for a commemoration of three generations of one family — Mary Grimes, her daughter, Avril Monaghan, who was seven months pregnant when she was killed along with her unborn twins, and Avril’s 18-month-old daughter, Maura Monaghan.
Professional trauma counselors will be on hand at the hearings to provide support to witnesses should they require assistance.
A preliminary hearing of the inquiry, announced by the former Conservative administration in 2023 in response to a High Court judgment that found plausible arguments that the tragedy could have been prevented, opened and adjourned July 30.
Chaired by Lord Alan Turnbull, the inquiry will seek answers as to whether British and Irish intelligence and security agencies could have stopped the bombing but has no remit to find those responsible — a situation complicated by a court ruling that legislation passed in 2023 granting immunity to people with information about killings and woundings during the Troubles breaches survivors’ human rights.
A splinter republican group calling itself the Real IRA [Irish Republican Army] claimed responsibility for the attack on Aug. 15, 1998, four months after the Good Friday Agreement that was supposed to bring an end to the three-decades-long Troubles was signed April 10.
The inquiry, some of which will be held behind closed doors for national security reasons, will investigate whether authorities, including the police, security forces and intelligence and security agencies, could have done more to disrupt “dissident republican terrorists” involved in terrorist attacks or attempted terror attacks in the eight months preceding the bombing in Omagh.
Specifically, it will look at how those authorities and agencies shared intelligence with the authorities in the Republic of Ireland regarding the activities of those dissident republicans, as well as any change in the measures employed or approach taken by British authorities following the April 1998 signing of the U.S.-brokered peace accords.
Central to the probe will be intelligence said to have been obtained by GCHQ (Government Communication Headquarters), including from alleged vehicle monitoring and phone wiretaps of those involved in the planning, preparation and carrying out of the Omagh bombing and other earlier attacks.
No one has ever been convicted for the attack.
Real IRA leader, the late Michael McKevitt was found liable in a 2009 civil prosecution along with three other men.
