Public inquiry into Omagh bombing to begin hearings

By Jonathan McCambridge, PA

The public inquiry into the Omagh bombing is to hold its first substantive hearings.

Bereaved families and survivors are expected to gather at the Strule Arts Centre in the Co Tyrone town on Tuesday for the inquiry which will examine whether the atrocity could reasonably have been prevented by UK authorities.

Scottish judge Lord Turnbull is overseeing the probe into the 1998 Real IRA bombing which claimed 29 lives, including a woman pregnant with twins.

Commemorative and personal statement hearings will be held over the next four weeks.

These will begin with bereaved families giving pen portrait evidence of those who died, followed by survivors, emergency services and those working in statutory organisations.

According to the inquiry schedule, Tuesday will hear commemorations of Fernando Blasco Baselga, 12, and Rocio Abad Ramo, 23, two Spanish nationals killed in the bombing.

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.

The Irish Government has formally agreed to provide assistance to the inquiry.

In his opening statement to the inquiry last year, Lord Turnbull said the pain of bereavement and trauma caused by the dissident republican bomb attack spread beyond Omagh, Northern Ireland and Ireland to families from England and Spain.

He said the inquiry will undertake its task “rigorously and fearlessly”, and emphasised the “defining character of the inquiry must be its independence”.

Bereaved families have expressed hope that the process will provide them with answers about the worst atrocity of the Troubles after decades of campaigning for a public inquiry.