Omagh Inquiry

[AustinPowers]

Some heartbreaking stories coming from  the Inquiry in recent days

You remember a lot of the victims photos , but  you move on with your life. But you forget these families have to live with the loss of  such an awful  event

Jolene Marlow was only 17, and buried  the same day her A level results came out , confirming her place in university


Mr Logue says the last thing his mother remembered of Brenda was her ponytail swishing as she went out the door of the SD Kells clothing shop in Omagh.
"The blast threw me against the wall and knocked me unconscious, or so I was told. When I came around I knew in my heart she was gone"


Jesus, that's heartbreaking  stuff. And that's just from today's reports

[Rossfan]

Heartbreaking stuff.

[LC]

Agree, totally heartbreaking.

The Omagh families have carried themselves with dignity for years and at time I felt that certain political parties kept their distance and / or were possibly less vocal on their behalf.

I truly hope they get some answers but I can not help but think that key people in the public eye at the time who would know what happened will not be compelled to attend / give evidence.

[AustinPowers]

After the bombing, Mrs Logue never set foot in the middle of Omagh town centre again.

When she was diagnosed with cancer, she said her consultants were "baffled" when she replied it was not the worst news she had ever received.

"Losing a child is every parent's worst nightmare and I have lived with that nightmare every day for the last 26 years."

Brenda's exam results arrived two days after her death - she had been planning to study leisure and tourism at college.


Poor woman. Absolutely heartbreaking

[StephenC]

https://www.rte.ie/news/ulster/2025/0211/1496010-omagh-bombing-inquiry/

This is truely harrowing.


Pauline Harte was a 19 year old student who had a summer job in a shop close to the site of the explosion.

"The engine of the car used for the bomb landed on my legs, with the axle resting on my waist, and it was on fire. I was on fire underneath it," she told the inquiry with her husband Ronan by her side.

"I didn't know it was a fire, because fire has the colour yellow in it. I saw deep black, orange and red colours moving and it sounded as angry as it looked. My ears hurt and everything was muffled, people were screaming above the noise of the engine.

"I knew I was trapped and reached my hand down to see what was stopping me. I touched the bar across my stomach, and that is my first memory of the pain.

"The tar was melting around me and my elbow was sunk into it."

She recalled how a group of men, including a number of police officers, had tried to free her and used water and fire extinguishers to put out the flames.

"One of the men told me later that he went home with my skin melted into his hands," she added.

Pauline had to have her lower left leg amputated and spent four months in hospital being treated for multiple injuries including third degree burns from the waist down.

She recalled the pain of her long physical recovery process.

"I remember the pain of the burns being so acute that I could feel the vibrations from someone walking in heels, it travelled up through my body until I could feel it in my teeth," she said.

"It was an agonising, searing pain, and when I closed my eyes everything was white."

[Puckoon]

Pauline is an exceptional human, what she went through was just horrendous. Each story more jarring than the last. The inquiry has been harrowing reading and listening from a trauma that for anyone from Omagh and the surrounding area or anyone who was impacted will never fully heal, I believe.

[Wildweasel74]

Heard that today, was that hard a listen, it's had turn it over, she had a very tough time, young age when it happened, and her life very restricted from it.

[StephenC]

Story after story of unbeliveable tradgedy and unbelieveable courage.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ulster/2025/0213/1496610-survivor-searched-for-mother-before-seeing-foot-was-gone/



A woman seriously injured in the Omagh bombing has told the inquiry into the atrocity how she frantically searched for her mother without realising that her own foot had been blown off.

Suzanne Travis, a 20-year-old student, had gone into town shopping with her mother.

"Little did I know that a lovely sunny day in Omagh all those years ago would turn into the worst day of our lives," she said.

She remained conscious throughout her ordeal despite being buried beneath rubble following the blast, with blood from a head injury blurring her vision.

When she pulled herself free of the rubble she saw two dead bodies beside her.

She then searched for her mother and said she was relieved when she saw her sitting upright in the middle of Market Street where she had landed after being blown through the air by the force of the explosion.

It was only then, after meeting a friend, that she realised that she herself was seriously injured.

"I looked down and realised that I had lost my left foot. It had been completely blown off," she said.

A man she did not know put her into his car and brought her to the hospital in Omagh, from where she was transferred to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry.

Shortly after arriving doctors told her that they would have to amputate her lower left leg. The student had to sign her own consent form because her parents were nor present.

"I remember the word amputation," she recalled.

"I remember them giving me the pen and the clipboard and then I remember signing it, scribbling on it."

[AustinPowers]

Heard that earlier. Christ , those poor people. How would you ever  get that sort of thing out of  your mind?

[Aaron Boone]

I recall watching Sky News (in its infancy) that Saturday afternoon. Everyone they had on the phone from Omagh just said it was a massive emergency situation. There was still an A&E in Omagh back then.

[nrico2006]

Tracey Devine died today.

[AustinPowers]

James Barker

Mr Barker recalls the last time he saw his son alive, he says James "immediately" asked if he could replace his sick sister on the trip to Omagh.

A day with friends getting up to mischief would be much more appealing to him than caddying for his father," he says.


Upon their return home to Buncrana, Mr Baker describes having to break the news to his daughter who was "naturally distraught".

"I do not believe she has ever recovered from the feelings of guilt, that she should have been in Omagh, and not her brother James," he says.


Awful thing for  his  sister to have to live with . 

[Rossfan]

And to think there are some fkrs who'd like to go back to that.

[Caitlin]

The evidence provided so far is harrowing. What an atrocity. I cannot imagine the impact on people who were in Omagh on 15th August 1998; Police Officers, Fire Officers, Ambulance staff, Doctors, Nurses, Bystanders,Victims.
The comments above are appropriate and measured. In some ways, whatever emerges about informers, information-sharing and collusion is not as important as hearing the individual stories.

[Milltown Row2]

The evidence provided so far is harrowing. What an atrocity. I cannot imagine the impact on people who were in Omagh on 15th August 1998; Police Officers, Fire Officers, Ambulance staff, Doctors, Nurses, Bystanders,Victims.
The comments above are appropriate and measured. In some ways, whatever emerges about informers, information-sharing and collusion is not as important as hearing the individual stories.

One of many stories littered throughout the history of the troubles, gruesome because it became the single worst atrocity of its time. How no one was ever caught or even handed themselves in is beyond belief.

I've two memories around the Omagh and Enniskillen bombs

The first was that Sunday morning when the bomb went off in Enniskillen, a class mate came into shop and was overjoyed over hearing the news about the bomb, I was, even at that age, confused as to why he was this way.

The other was the morning of the Omagh attack, I was in the local park with my son, near the Royal Hospital, the sight of what looked like a fleet of helicopters flew over head, obviously heading that direction, you knew that there had been something big to generate that amount of traffic.

Obviously there are many stories, but hearing these accounts have been difficult, but my god, the hearing of these when you are personally affected must be grim