Bereaved father hopes Omagh inquiry ‘the beginning of the end’
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was killed in the blast in 1998, has pressed British and Irish governments to co-operate fully with inquiry.
Hope has been expressed that the Omagh Bombing Inquiry will be the “beginning of the end” for the bereaved in their pursuit of answers.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was killed in the 1998 dissident republican bomb attack in the Co Tyrone town, also pressed the British and Irish governments to fully co-operate with the inquiry.
The inquiry will examine whether the atrocity could have been prevented.
It started four weeks of commemorative hearings on Tuesday, remembering the victims and hearing from those who were injured or directly affected.
Mr Gallagher campaigned for many years for an inquiry, and took the legal action which resulted in a judge in 2021 finding it was plausible there was a real prospect the bombing could have been prevented by the security services, and calling for new investigations on both sides of the Irish border.
In 2023, the UK government announced there would be an independent statutory inquiry into the bombing.
Ruairi de Burca, director-general at the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, attended the first public hearing of the Omagh inquiry last July.
He told the inquiry that he was present on behalf of his government to signal in the “clearest terms, our commitment to facilitating and supporting the work of this inquiry”.
Mr Gallagher said on Tuesday: “I just hope for me that this is the beginning of the end, that we do get the answers we need, that both the British government and the Irish government fully co-operate with the inquiry and as a bereaved parent I can say that’s all I can do.
“I’m very grateful for everybody who helped us get to this point where we can see an end.”
Mr Gallagher also praised the focus on the victims in this phase of the inquiry as “bringing humanity” to proceedings.
“It’s important to be here to support the other families, the Spanish families are giving evidence this morning, it’s going to be difficult,” he said.
“It brings a lot of it back, but it’s hugely important to focus this week and next week and the week after on the victims. In all of this, sometimes the voice of the victims is lost because there are so many technical arguments, but this brings humanity to it.”
