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Omagh bomb victims’ names read aloud as public inquiry reopens Omagh bomb victims’ names read aloud as public inquiry reopens
(about 7 hours later)
Inquiry chair says evidence will make clear the ‘devastating and lasting impact’ of Real IRA attack in August 1998Inquiry chair says evidence will make clear the ‘devastating and lasting impact’ of Real IRA attack in August 1998
The names of each of the 29 people killed in the Omagh bombing, including a mother and her unborn twins, have been read out as the public inquiry into the attack reopened. The sister of a 23-year-old Spanish visitor killed in the devastating Omagh bomb has said the public inquiry into the atrocity is allowing the family “to close a wound that has been open for 26 years”.
Bereaved families and survivors gathered at the Strule arts centre in County Tyrone for the inquiry, which will examine whether UK authorities could reasonably have prevented the Real IRA bombing on 15 August 1998. During the opening day of the resumed inquiry, Paloma Abad Ramos told of the “mind-blowing shock” she and her family felt in 1998 when they learned the youngest of three daughters, Rocio, had been caught up in a bomb in a foreign country.
In a hushed hall, the inquiry chair, Alan Turnbull, thanked those who had chosen to engage. She was one of 29 victims, along with two unborn twins, who were killed that day as a 500lb bomb planted by the Real IRA ripped through the town. The bombing sent shock waves around the world, coming just months after the Good Friday peace agreement.
He opened by speaking of the “distressing and difficult experience” of those who had volunteered to engage in the process, with memories inevitably flooding back to when the 500lb bomb exploded killing 29 and injuring 220 others. Distressed and wiping tears from her eyes during her near two-hour testimony to the public inquiry, Abad Ramos recalled how she came home to Madrid in August 1998 to a family gathering she thought was a surprise birthday party.
It was the largest single incident in the Troubles in Northern Ireland and sent shock waves across the island of Ireland and beyond, with casualties from Northern Ireland, Ireland, England and Spain. “Instead it was me who had the surprise,” she said, recalling the moment her older sister Anna broke the news in one of the “most terrible moments” of her life.
“For many, revisiting the thoughts and emotions of loss and injury has been very upsetting,” Turnbull said. Highlighting how shock can manifest itself in many ways, she said: “She was crying telling me, and I reacted with a burst of laughter because I was so nervous, I couldn’t control myself. I could not stop for one hour.”
Some of the statements submitted to the inquiry have been redacted but Turnbull said he had read them all. He said some of the evidence would be triggering and the inquiry would from time to time warn of the harrowing detail to come to allow people to exit the room should they wish. She shared harrowing details of seeing the remains of her sister and thanked the inquiry chair for the “only support” her family felt they had in their quest for truth “for many, many years”.
Those who were watching the inquiry in person or online would be “be shocked at the level of grief imposed on ordinary, decent members of society doing nothing other than living their daily lives”, Turnbull said. It was Rocio’s fifth trip to Ireland to learn English. She had just finished a biology degree with plans to be a school teacher and was “super excited” about the summer because it was her first time as a youth leader in charge of 31 children going to Buncrana in county Donegal as part of an exchange programme.
He said he hoped the evidence would mean that the “devastating and lasting impact of terrible random violence”, which “otherwise might be incomprehensible to those who have no such experience in their lives”, would be understood by all. She and some of the children, along with some locals, were on a day trip to Omagh when the bomb exploded, instantly killing her and some of her young charges, including 12-year-old Fernando Blasco Baselga, whose family submitted a short statement about the impact of their loss.
He said it was his sincere hope that all those who supported or condoned the bombing would learn of the “indiscriminate and devastating consequences of such selfish conduct for innocent, hard-working and caring people of all ages and for their communities”. Paloma Abad Ramos told how she and about 20 other bereaved Spanish people were taken by military plane to Northern Ireland in the aftermath.
Victims will take centre stage at this phase of the inquiry, which is scheduled to last four weeks. Bereaved families will give pen portraits of those who died, followed by evidence from survivors, emergency services and those working in statutory organisations. “Imagine a military plane with no seats, seated on a net with 20 more people, family members of wounded and victims, it was a very tense situation,” she told the inquiry recounting a similar trip home with the coffins.
Opening the commemorations, the counsel for the inquiry Paul Greaney KC described the bombing as “an act of savagery” made “all the more wicked if that were possible” because it came three months after the public had voted in a referendum to accept the Good Friday/Belfast agreement. “This trip was filled with sadness, with a lot of distress,” she said.
He proceeded to read out the names of each of the victims, including unborn twins, babies, children and young people, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and grandparents. Her voice choking with tears, she recalled the moment her parents took her to see her sister’s remains. “That impacted me really, really heavily,” she said.
Due to be commemorated on Tuesday were a 12-year-old Spanish boy, Fernando Blasco Baselga, and his youth leader, Rocío Abad Ramos, 23. Ramos, a science student, had been due to return to Spain for her sister’s wedding and was one month from finishing a biology degree. Her father kissed his daughter on the forehead. She recalled the Spanish ambassador to Ireland who stood with him saying: “I’ve never seen so much love in a kiss”.
No one was ever convicted over the atrocity but the dissident Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt was found responsible in a 2009 civil case. Colm Murphy, who died in 2023, was convicted of being involved in the plot but was cleared in a retrial. She also told of the upset caused by the huge media interest and the large funeral organised by the state for Rocio and Fernando.
It prompted the family to have a second funeral for family and friends a month later.
The names of each of the 29 people killed were read out as the public inquiry reopened on Tuesday.
The inquiry was established by the British government to examine whether the attack could have been prevented.
No one was ever convicted over the atrocity, which also injured 200 others. The dissident Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt was found responsible in a 2009 civil case. Colm Murphy, who died in 2023, was convicted of being involved in the plot but was cleared in a retrial.
Alan Turnbull, the chair of the public inquiry, said those who were watching the inquiry in person or online would be “overwhelmed and humbled” by what they would hear over the next four weeks. The inquiry has been dedicated to commemorations of those directly affected, including victims and first responders.
Summarising the witness statements of each of the victims, Paul Greaney KC spoke of the anger some feel, with one woman asking if the perpetrators of such a “despicable act” could sleep at night.
Greaney said the victims statements demonstrated the “mayhem, pandemonium, unfolding chaos, harrowing sounds and smells, and feeling of helplessness and terror” on the day.
Several wrote about how the bomb had shattered the optimism around the recently won peace deal.
Many spoke of the mental impact “which developed as their bodies began to heal” with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, flashbacks, sleeplessness, nightmares, loneliness, a sense of humiliation and panic attacks all emanating from the trauma. Some remain hypervigilant about open spaces to this day.
The inquiry continues.