On Friday, a silence will mark 10 years since the Omagh bombing, a crime for which no one has yet been convicted. Now the victims' families are hoping for justice from a landmark civil case, writes Dan KeenanNorthern News Editor
ROCIO ABAD RAMOS (23), James Barker (12), Fernando Blasco Baselga (12), Geraldine Breslin (43), Deborah-Anne Cartwright (20), Gareth Conway (18), Breda Devine (1), Oran Doherty (8), Aidan Gallagher (21), Esther Gibson (36), Mary Grimes (66), Olive Hawkes (60), Julia Hughes (21), Brenda Logue (17), Jolene Marlow (17), Ann McCombe (48), Brian McCrory (54), Samantha McFarland (17), Sean McGrath (61), Sean McLaughlin (12), Avril Monaghan (30), Maura Monaghan (1), Alan Radford (16), Elizabeth Rush (57), Veda Short (56), Philomena Skelton (49), Bryan White (27), Frederick White (60), Lorraine Wilson (15).
Add to those names the un-named unborn twins who also died in Avril Monaghan's womb.
"Death must be counted in ones." This is the title of a piece of art created to mark not just the dead of Omagh 10 years ago but also the three Quinn boys who lost their lives in a firebomb attack on their Ballymoney, Co Antrim home on July 12th that turbulent summer, when the Drumcree stand-off was at its peak.
1998 was a landmark year. The Belfast Agreement was signed on Good Friday in April and later passed overwhelmingly in referendums north and south of the Border in May. The euphoria over the political deal was quickly tempered by Drumcree and by a series of dissident republican bomb attacks across Northern Ireland. Omagh was the biggest, the deadliest and the last of these.
Nearly four years after the first IRA ceasefire, and following the conclusion of the Good Friday deal, many were getting used to the idea of peace. But political turmoil within unionism and the splintering of republican paramilitaries followed by the single worst atrocity in three decades of the Troubles combined to prove that some of that hope was premature.
The Real IRA team which bombed Omagh on August 15th denied it was ever their intention to murder. They claimed it was to be a strategic attack on an economic target. But their actions had more force than even they could have foreseen.
THEY KILLED 29, including a woman pregnant with twins and two infants who were among nine other children. Some bodies have never been found.
The bomb killed Protestants, Catholics and a Mormon. Three generations of the Grimes family died. Two close friends died next to each other. Many of the victims died when they evacuated the area where it was thought the car containing the bomb had been parked and instead walked closer to where the 500lb fertiliser-based bomb had really been left.
Their individual stories are poignant.
Rocio Abad Ramos was on her fifth student exchange trip to Ireland and was in charge of some children on a visit to the Ulster-American Folk Park a short distance away. They had altered their plans at the last minute to visit Omagh. James Barker, Fernando Blasco Baselga, Oran Doherty and Sean McLaughlin died with her.
James Barker's parents had moved to Ireland to find a better life in Co Donegal. They have since returned to England.
Geraldine Breslin and Ann McCombe were friends who died together when they walked into the street as the bomb exploded.
Deborah-Anne Cartwright was a student whose A-level results arrived by post on the day of her funeral.
Gareth Conway was a keen Gaelic footballer and his father was an All-Ireland handball player. He had gone into Omagh to see about some contact lenses when he was killed. His sister was working in Omagh hospital when she learned that he was among those listed as missing.
Breda Devine was just 20 months old. She was born three months premature and survived only for the Real IRA to murder her.
Aidan Gallagher had gone into town to buy a pair of jeans when he was killed. An uncle had also been murdered in 1984. His father, Michael, is now the most high-profile person among the Omagh relatives and has spoken at a series of peace events across the globe.
Esther Gibson was a niece of Oliver Gibson, a former member of the Northern Irish Assembly and DUP founder, and had her engagement photograph taken shortly before the bomb exploded. It was placed on top of her coffin at her funeral service a few days later.
Mary Grimes was a mother of 12 and originally from Kanturk, Co Cork. She died on her birthday alongside her daughter, the heavily pregnant Avril Monaghan, and her grand-daughter Maura (18 months).
Olive Hawkes was in Omagh on a shopping trip. Her ruby wedding anniversary was only a few days away. Her body was later identified by the fingerprints from her bed-side alarm clock.
Julia Hughes was another student who had returned home from Scotland to find summer work. She too died when she left a shop after the bomb warning and walked towards the car bomb.
Like Hughes, Brenda Logue, Jolene Marlow, Samantha McFarland and Lorraine Wilson all died because of the same misunderstanding about the true position of the bomb, caused by a series of misleading warnings phoned to the Samaritans and to UTV in Belfast.
Sean McGrath was critically hurt in the blast and he became the last victim to die, nearly a month later.
Alan Radford was a teenager whose father had survived a previous murder bid by the IRA. He died close to his mother, who received injuries in the blast.
Elizabeth (Libby) Rush was working in her pine and canework shop, which also had an upstairs cafe, when the bomb exploded. She died while serving customers.
Veda Short died only a few hours after the birth of her grandson Lee.
Philomena Skelton died while buying school uniforms for her three children. Her husband was in a shop only a few feet away and survived with "hardly a scratch".
Frederick White was a prominent Orangeman and Ulster Unionist who had been a treasurer with his local Presbyterian congregation for 22 years. He was also a prize daffodil grower, an interest shared by his son, Bryan. Father and son died together and were buried side by side.
THE BOMBERS, however, were responsible for much more than the grievous loss of life and the injuries, many of them hideous, inflicted on hundreds more. Once the dust had cleared, and the parade of sombre presidents, prime ministers and royals had all departed, work began to rebuild not just Omagh but the hope planted by the political accord reached the previous Good Friday.
The bomb clearly jeopardised the delicate post-Agreement political consensus, but it also provoked fresh emergency legislation in both London and Dublin and led to one of the most controversial and error-riddled police investigations on both sides of the Border, the political fallout from which has lingered to this day.
The British and Irish governments moved quickly to strengthen their emergency legislation, pledging that the dissident republican group responsible would face justice. Internment was not ruled out at one point.
The RUC was headed by Ronnie Flanagan who, to the grateful relief of both London and Dublin, was later able to enact many of the Patten reforms, which saw the RUC transformed into the modern PSNI. However, he was also roundly criticised by former police ombudsman Nuala O'Loan, whose withering analysis of the quality of the original Omagh investigation rocked the entire fledgling Northern Irish policing establishment.
All the new elements of the Patten-inspired reforms felt the tremors - the new civilian Policing Board, the Ombudsman's Office and the PSNI itself.
The Omagh investigation continues with a raft of checks and balances, supervisors from outside police forces and a tangle of accountability and oversight procedures.
However, the PSNI's Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, has been forced to admit, following the acquittal last December of Sean Hoey, the man accused of the murders, that it is improbable anyone will ever be convicted without fresh evidence.
Many of the Omagh relatives have begun their own civil action for damages, backed by high-profile donors, against the group of men they believe bombed Omagh. Their case, unusually, has been heard in both Belfast and Dublin courts, enabling Garda witnesses to give evidence. The outcome is still awaited.
The mission statement of the victims' relatives looks well beyond the outrage of Omagh, "to promote, advocate, and address where possible, the needs of victims of the conflict in Ireland in order to achieve health, peace of mind, security and the foundations for personal growth. We are committed to addressing the real and practical needs of those bereaved and injured as a result of terrorist activity, and ensuring that victims are afforded the respect and consideration they deserve."
However, the fact remains that when Omagh falls silent again on Friday at 3.10pm, the moment when the Real IRA struck, no one has been or looks likely to be found guilty of murder.