Omagh bombing inquiry to begin with families' victim statements
28 January 2025, 08:49
The inquiry into the worst atrocity of the Troubles begins today, with victims and relatives taking centre stage.
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For the next four weeks, the inquiry will hear commemorative and personal statements from bereaved families and survivors of the 1998 bombing that killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
Victim groups predict that this phase of the hearing, taking place at the Strule Arts Centre in the County Tyrone town, will be a "harrowing" experience.
Scottish judge Lord Turnbull is overseeing the probe, examining whether the atrocity could reasonably have been prevented by UK authorities.
In a preliminary session held last year, he said the inquiry will undertake its task "rigorously and fearlessly", and emphasised the "defining character of the inquiry must be its independence".
Lord Turnbull also said that the pain and trauma caused by the Real IRA bombing attack spread beyond Omagh, Northern Ireland and Ireland to families from England and Spain.
On Tuesday, the two Spanish victims of the attack, Fernando Blasco Baselga, 12, and Rocio Abad Ramo, 23, will be remembered.
The student and youth leader were visiting Omagh as part of a Spanish group learning English over the border in County Donegal.
Laywers for Fernando's family will make a statement, while Rocio will be remembered by her sister Paloma Abad Ramos.
The bombing took place just months after the Good Friday peace agreement, shocking Ireland and motivating leaders on both sides of the border to accelerate the peace process.
No one was ever convicted for the 1998 attack, but Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt was found liable in a 2009 civil case, along with three other men - Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly.
Murphy and Daly were initially cleared of liability on appeal in 2011, but found liable for the attack in a civil retrial in 2013.
Colm Murphy had also been convicted of criminal involvement in the conspiracy, but was cleared in a retrial when it was discovered that Irish police had falsified interview notes.
The proceedings were announced by then Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris in 2023 after a High Court judgment recommended a public inquiry into alleged security failings in the lead-up to the atrocity, and also urged the Irish authorities to establish their own probe.
