Omagh Bombing

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The Omagh bombing was a car bomb attack carried out by the Real IRA The Real IRA claimed 'minimal responsibility' for bombing the courthouse at Omagh, and later released a statement saying that after a long investigation they believed 2 MI5 agents (that were believed to be genuine Republicans at the time) to be largely responsible for the planning and implementation of the Omagh bombing. [link] on August 15, 1998, in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The Real IRA are a small splinter group of former Provisional Irish Republican Army members opposed to the peace process marked by the Good Friday Agreement. Twenty-nine people were killed in the attack, including one woman who was pregnant with twins. Roughly 220 people were injured.

The bomb is notable for having claimed the most lives in a single incident since the beginning of the Troubles.The Omagh bombing is commonly described as the "worst atrocity of the troubles" in some sections of the media. This is inaccurate, the "worst atrocity" ie. highest death toll, is widely considered to be the Loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) bombings in Dublin & Monaghan in 1974, (causing 33-35 deaths). The victims included both nationalists as well as unionists, and also included Spanish tourists and others on a day trip from County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.

Warnings

On the day of the bombing, three warnings about the bombing were recorded and reported:

:Received by Ulster Television at 14:30

"There's a bomb, courthouse, Omagh, main street, 500 pounds, explosion 30 minutes."

:Received by the Coleraine office of the 'Samaritans' charity, 14:32

"Am I through to Omagh? This is a bomb warning. It's going to go off in 30 minutes." (followed possibly by further pieces of information not recorded, including that the location of the bomb was 200 yards from the courthouse).

:Received by Ulster Television at 14:35

"Bomb, Omagh town, 15 minutes." [link]

There has been considerable debate about the subject of these warnings, the tapes of some warnings have not been released to the public, and some information about the location of the bomb may have been recorded incorrectly or ignored. Several warnings mentioned that the bomb was 200 yards away from the courthouse, the actual bombing was between 300-400 yards from the courthouse.

The Police Ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, strongly criticised the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) over their handling of the investigation. She stated that RUC officers had ignored previous warnings about a bomb and had failed to act on crucial intelligence. She went on to say that officers had been uncooperative and defensive during her inquiry into the investigation. RUC officers had been seen moving people towards the bomb, which they claimed was because the warnings had been for the courthouse. [link] However, there were several warnings that the bombing would be 200 yards away from the courthouse; this was ignored by the RUC, who never properly looked at the more reliable later warnings. On 24 February, 2006, it was alleged that an agent paid by MI5 and the FBI, knew of the plan to bomb Omagh, but that MI5 never passed this information to police. [link]

The BBC's Panorama programme, Who Bombed Omagh?, shown in 2000, gave the names of the prime suspects as Séamus McKenna, Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, and Seamus Daly. It is believed that the bombing of BBC Television Centre in London was a revenge attack for the broadcast. Builder and publican Murphy, from County Louth, was charged and convicted in 2001 by the Republic's Special Criminal Court for "conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or cause injury". He was sentenced to fourteen years in jail. In January 2005, Murphy's conviction was quashed and a retrial ordered by the Court of Criminal Appeal, on the grounds that two gardaí had falsified interview notes, and that Murphy's previous convictions were improperly taken into account by the trial judges [link].

No others have been indicted in a criminal court, because of lack of evidence. Many of the others were later sued in a civil action by the relatives of people killed in the bombing, including the families of James Barker, 12, Samantha McFarland, 17, Lorraine Wilson, 15, and 20-month-old Breda Devine.

The Real IRA have claimed that their intent was not to kill civilians but to destroy Omagh's courthouse. There are widely differing accounts of what exactly happened, and it is difficult to say for sure if this is true or what exactly went wrong.

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On 26 May, 2005, Sean Hoey, an electrician from Jonesborough from south County Armagh was charged with the murders and 32 other explosive and terrorism offenses.

The bombing also inspired the song "Paper Sun", by rock group Def Leppard, as noted in the commentary of their album Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection.

Names of Omagh Bomb Victims

External links

[CAIN: Key Events - The Omagh Bomb, 15 August 1998]
[Website dedicated to the Omagh bomb event] Warning: Contains graphic eye-witness accounts
[indymedia.ie article about the arrest of Sean Hoey]

Notes

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