The image above was taken minutes before a Real I.R.A. bomb exploded in the red car,killing 28 people in what was regarded as possibly the worst single incident of the troubles.A 29th person died later.A 500lb bomb placed by the dissident republican group,turned a busy saturday shopping afternoon in the Tyrone town into carnage.The incident generated a shock wave which reverberated around the world.Although there was at first speculation that the attack might spell the end of the peace process,it became evident within days that it had made most polititians more determined to proceed with negotiations.
But while its political effects were seen as a huge blow against thoses engaged in violence,its effects on Omagh and district and on many families further afield was catastrophic.One report summarised:'The Omagh fatality list reads like a microcosm of troubles deaths,and left no section of Irish life untouched.The town they attacked is roughly 60-40 Catholic-Protestant,and the dead consisted of Protestants,Catholics,a Mormon and two Spanish visitors.They killed young,old and middle-aged,fathers,mothers,sons,daughters and grannies.They killed republicans and unionists,including one prominent local member of the Ulster Unionist Party.They killed people from the backbone of the Gaelic Athletic Association.They killed unborn twins,bright students,cheery shop assistants and many young people.They killed three children from the Irish republic who were up north on a day trip.Everyone they killed was a civilian.The toll of death was thus both extraordinarily high and extraordinarily comprehensive.'
The first word of the attack came when two telephone warnings were made shortly after 2.30pm.,one to the Ulster Television newsroom and the other to the Samaritans in Coleraine.The caller,giving a recognised code comprising a Christian name and Surname,warned of a bomb at the courthouse in the main street.Police evacuated the area around the building,shepherding many of the shoppers towards the Dublin road junction where they waited for the area to be declared safe.Inside the previous half hour,however,a Vauxhall Cavalier,stolen in Carrickmacross,Co.Monaghan two days earlier,had been parked outside a drapery shop near the junction.It was driven into Omagh along Campsie road,two men being seen walking away towards Campsie.Inside it was the bomb,believed to be made up of a combination of Semtex explosive,fertiliser and fuel oil.The narrow part of the street where the car bomb had been parked was crowded,housing as it did a coffee shop,clothes shops and a pub.With the new term just two weeks away,many parents were shopping for school uniforms for their children.Others had brought their youngsters into the town because a carnival was to be held during the afternoon.
The bomb went off at 3.10p.m.The car carrying it disintegrated,while glass from shop windows and masonry from the buildings scythed through the crowd.Those first on the scene gave grim details:of battered prams,of the blackened bodies of children,of detached legs,arms and hands.
A policemen said:'There were horrific injuries.I tended to a couple of people who had badly gashed abdomens.We were literally using Pampers disposable nappies from the chemist's shop to try and curtail the bleeding and,to be blunt,to try to keep them alive.'A father and son were killed as were three generations of one family-a grandmother,her daughter and granddaughter.According to one report 30 children lost mothers as a result of the attack.Nine victims were killed in R.D.Kells' drapery shop alone.Seven of them had been in the shop at the time,while the other two were blown through windows by the force of the explosion.A 29th person,Sean McGrath,died from his injuries three weeks later.
A local councillor said:'It was absolute carnage,carnage of the worst i have ever seen,and i have a lot of experience because i did 25 years in the fire service through the worst of the years and we had quite a lot of fatalities.But certainly i never experienced anything like it.The carnage was unbelievable-there were bodies everywhere,screaming,a terrible loss of blood,a terrible loss of limbs and obviously people were dead.'
A team of 50 firemen worked at the scene of the explosion for seven hours after the blast.Using their hands and sometimes heavy machinery and thermal detection equipment,they worked to locate the dead and free casualties from the rubble of destroyed buildings.As many as 200 people were injured.So many panic-striken local people arrived looking for friends and relatives that police had to form a cordon of Land rovers to seal off the scene during the rescue operation.Within minutes of the explosion the RUC asked local radio stations to broadcast a request for medical help.Seven army and RAF helecopters flew some of the most severely hurt to other hospitals.Helicopters carrying patients landed in the car park of Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital until late in the evening.Headlights of police cars and ambulances were used to enable helicopters to set down on the improvised landing pad.Doctors said that the availability of the helecopters saved many lives.At one stage,with telephone lines cut by the bomb,a mobile phone belonging to a BBC journalist provided the only connection between Tyrone County Hospital and the major hospitals in Belfast.By this means,medical staff were able to make their colleagues in the city aware of the specific nature of casualties they could expect.
Off duty and holidaying medical staff at many hospitals returned to offer help and Cavan General Hospital in the Irish Republic sent anaesthetists,surgeons,nurses and medical supplies to relieve the pressure.Sligo general hospital,also in the Republic,treated the casualties of an unrelated car accident in Enniskillen to help the Enniskillen Hospital deal with Omagh casualties.Many GP's from the surrounding area reported to hospitals.With them came doctors and nurses from other countries who were holidaying in Ireland.Omagh Leisure Centre was taken over as an emergency incident centre.Over the next 24 hours there were harrowing scenes as hundreds of relatives and friends waited for news of those missing.Only five of the dead were immediately identifiable,leaving more than 20 who could not be identified,either because of the extent of their injuries or the absence of any documents.The painstaking process of locating victims left relatives and friends with hours of agonising waiting.
Condemnation came from all over the world for this atrocity that will go down in history as the worst of the 'Troubles'
