Soldier F Bloody Sunday trial is likely to start in September

Rebecca Black, Irish News, February 19th, 2025

THE trial of a former British soldier accused of the murder of two men on Bloody Sunday is likely to be listed to start in September.

Soldier F, who cannot be identified, is accused of murdering James Wray and William McKinney when members of the Parachute Regiment shot dead 13 civil rights protesters on the streets of Derry in January 1972.

He is also charged with five attempted murders. He has pleaded not guilty to each of the seven counts.

The case was mentioned briefly at Belfast Crown Court yesterday morning before Mr Justice Fowler. Soldier F appeared remotely via videolink.

Mr McKinney’s relatives watched from the public gallery.

The court heard that a separate judge is to be appointed in the next few days to look at issues around the disclosure of material for the trial.

Mr Justice Fowler said he wants to review progress around disclosure in four weeks’ time before setting a date for the trial.

He told the court he intends to list the trial for September, adding that “the question is the date”.

The case is next set to be mentioned on March 18.

OMAGH INQUIRY

Family feels 'woefully let down' by police investigation

BBC, February 19th, 2025

The father of a 12-year-old boy killed in the Omagh bomb says his family were "woefully let down" by a poor police investigation.

Victor Barker told the Omagh Bombing Inquiry that his son James's life had been taken away from him in the most "evil and barbaric fashion".

He said James, who had taken his sister's place on a school trip to Omagh, was "robbed of his bright and happy future".

The Real IRA bomb killed 29 people in the County Tyrone town in August 1998, including a woman who was pregnant with twins.

Appearing via a remote link, Mr Barker said: "Like so many thousands of others who have lost loved ones in the Troubles, I have some very dark moments.

"But I have done all I can to bring some kind of justice for James and everyone else.

"We have been woefully let down by a very poorly conducted police investigation and, I might add, a chief constable in Sir Ronnie Flanagan who, in my view, fell well short of the mark."

James Barker was one of three schoolboys from Buncrana who were murdered in the explosion

The public inquiry, being held at the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh, has been hearing personal statements from those affected by the bombing.

Mr Barker told the inquiry that James had grown up in England, but his maternal grandparents moving to Buncrana in County Donegal made his wife want to move back to Ireland.

Mr Barker, who stayed in England, said his son loved living there despite missing him.

Mr Barker, who was in Donegal in August 1998, said his daughter was feeling unwell so James asked if he could take her place on a trip to Omagh with Spanish exchange students

Last time I saw my son alive

"This was the last time I saw my son alive," he said.

"As he left the house that morning he had a life full of possibilities in front of him.

"Little did I know that the life he had built and my wife's dream of a better life for the children was about to be torn apart forever."

He added that he did not believe his daughter has ever recovered from the guilt that her brother James replaced her.

Mr Barker also told the inquiry how he picked up a copy of a newspaper the next day where there was a picture of James on the front page.

"He was on a stretcher. I recall saying to my friends, 'look what they've done to my lovely boy'," he said.

"I simply broke down."

Nothing I have responded to since the Omagh bomb ever came anywhere close

"Nothing I have responded to since the Omagh bomb has ever come anywhere close" - Paddy Quinn

Paddy Quinn is a current commander for the Northern Ireland Fire Service in the Omagh district.

Mr Quinn, an on-call officer at the time of the bombing, heard the explosion while working at his carpet shop and was the first to arrive at the fire station.

Mr Quinn said none of the firefighters were anxious as there was no mention of casualties and they assumed the area had been cleared.

He was on the first fire engine to go to Market Street and arrived at a scene of "total chaos, devastation, carnage".

Referring to a famous photograph from the Vietnam War, he said: "There was a cloud of dust and there was a young girl running across the road terrified, and that's just the image I have of people from Omagh."

'Where is my wife?'

Mr Quinn described the look of "disbelief" on his colleagues' faces.

He said they were local firefighters working in their home town, who were worried their own family members had been caught up in the bomb.

"They were asking where is my wife, my son, my daughter?" he said.

"But they continued to do the job they were called to do and that was help others and search for others."

He recalled helping an injured woman on to an Ulsterbus and the floor of the bus was red with blood rather than blue.

A man is sitting with a computer in front of him. He's wearing a paramedic uniform that says ambulance on it. It's a bottled green colour. A jug of water is sitting on the table in front of him.

The aftermath of the bombing

Richard Quigley described the horror of the aftermath of the bombing

When he arrived he said it was "oddly quiet" as patients had already been moved to hospital.

He remembered the smell of beer flowing down the street from the remains of a bar opposite the bomb site.

He said it was the first explosion he had attended and he was involved in recovering bodies which had been moved into shops and an alleyway.

"We had used all the bags we had," he said, and had to source more from the fire service and military.

The bags were then placed on to stretchers.

"I physically checked the body bags to see if I could identify which end was the head or legs," he said.

"What shocked me was not being able to clearly identify either the head or the feet of the patients."

The remains were then transported to a temporary morgue at a nearby Army camp.

Mr Quigley said: "I recall seeing the number of body bags laid out and each had its own area, all in rows with a chair at the end.

"The size of the gym and the number of the body bags on the floor was something that should only have been seen in a movie."

'The end of childhood'

Maeve O'Brien was 13-years-old and was shopping with her younger sister and grandmother.

In a statement read to the inquiry, she said her life was divided into periods before and after the bomb.

"It was the end of childhood," she said.

"Often I would wonder why I survived the bomb and so many others died."

Maeve's younger sister Dervlagh, who was eight, described how her ability to live life had been "uprooted" by the bombing

"Sirens, fire alarms, emergency vehicles in any scenario evoke an extreme panic attack from me." she said.

He met three young Spanish girls ‘bleeding all over’

Damien Murphy had gone into town to send emails at the library.

In a statement that was read out, he described the screams and smells as overwhelming.

"I first saw people come past me with lots of bleeding, I retrieved some paper towels, telling people to put pressure on the wound," he said.

He added that he met three young Spanish girls who "were bleeding all over".

"My immediate thought was to get people out of here," he added.

No one ever convicted in a criminal court

It came less than three months after the people of Northern Ireland had voted yes to the Good Friday Agreement.

Who carried out the Omagh bombing?

The real IRA

Three days after the attack, the Real IRA released a statement claiming responsibility for the explosion.

It apologised to "civilian" victims and said its targets had been commercial.

Almost 27 years on, no-one has been convicted of carrying out the murders by a criminal court.

In 2009, a judge ruled that four men - Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were all liable for the Omagh bomb.

The four men were ordered to pay a total of £1.6m in damages to the relatives, but appeals against the ruling delayed the compensation process.

A fifth man, Seamus McKenna, was acquitted in the civil action and later died in a roofing accident in 2013.

Omagh RUC chief : Police felt guilt over evacuation

Jonathan McCambridge, Irish News, February 19th, 2025

It was apparent that many [officers] were seriously traumatised and felt guilty and responsible for moving people into the area of the bomb. I referred many officers to the police occupational health unit for professional counselling

THE police commander in Omagh on the day the town was bombed has said many of his officers felt “guilty and responsible” that they had evacuated members of the public towards the explosive device.

Retired superintendent James Baxter also told the Omagh Bombing Inquiry of the trauma caused to victims due to more than 70 hoax bomb warnings in the town in the years following the massacre.

Twenty-nine people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed when the Real IRA bombed the Co Tyrone town in August 1998.

The public inquiry, being held at the Strule Arts Centre, has been hearing statements from police officers who were part of the initial response to the bombing.

The public inquiry was set up by the British government to examine whether the attack could have been prevented by the UK authorities.

Mr Baxter was the RUC sub-divisional commander in Omagh on the day of the blast. He told how he was off-duty when he received a call that there had been a bomb warning. The warning incorrectly stated the device had been planted close to the courthouse and many people were being moved towards Market Street.

Raw Emotion

Mr Baxter said he heard on the news a short time later that a bomb had exploded. He headed to the town’s RUC station to assume command of the police operation.

The retired officer told the hearing that on the Saturday evening he went to Omagh Leisure Centre, which was being used as an information centre for relatives.

He said: “I witnessed the raw emotion of scores of people attempting to obtain information about relatives who were reported as missing.

“I was approached by several people known to me as they were in a very distressed state as they had no knowledge of the whereabouts of family members.”

He then went to the town’s army barracks where the gym was being used as a temporary mortuary.

He said: “I observed that several of the deceased had been moved to this location and were laid out in rows and covered with sheets.

“The sight of the bodies laid out in this temporary mortuary was very distressing and brought home vividly the impact of the atrocity which had been inflicted on the people of Omagh.”

Mr Baxter said he then inspected the room where families would be taken for formal identification of loved ones.

A long night of identification

He had agreed that flowers should be moved to the family room to give it a more “warm and pleasant atmosphere for those who would soon be required to perform the terrible task of identifying the bodies”.

He added: “These flowers were in place and I recall a box of tissues also set in place, which would be used continuously throughout the long night of identification.”

He said he saw a body in the identification room and realised it was a family member of personal friends of his.

He added: “Over the following hours, I was devastated to learn of the number of injured being treated in hospital and of the number of fatalities.

“As I learned the names of those who had died, I also realised that many were known to me personally.

Despite the emotional impact that I was experiencing, I knew I had to continue to function in a professional manner.”

He said he later learned that one of the dead was his son’s girlfriend.

“Unable to return home, I contacted my wife by telephone and asked her to break the news to my son,” he said.

Mr Baxter said he resumed his duties on Sunday morning following a few hours’ rest.

He said: “The scale of the atrocity resulted in multiple requests for visits to the town by individuals deemed to be VIPs by both political and public backgrounds.

“The requests seemed never ending and severely stretched my available resources.”

The most difficult and emotional duty of my career

He said he visited the homes of the families of many of the dead in the following days.

He said: “I found this to be the most difficult and emotional duty of my career as I met with family members devastated by their loss in such a horrific manner.”

One of the homes he visited was that of the family of his son’s girlfriend. He said: “Whilst attempting to act in a professional manner I found that I too was grieving because of my son’s girlfriend’s death. My wife and I felt the loss very severely.”

Mr Baxter said he attended many funerals over the following days.

He said he also had to provide welfare support for his officers.

He added: “I spoke to many who had been involved in evacuating people away from the area of the courthouse where the bomb call related to. Many of those people evacuated made their way down Market Street to the very site of the bomb blast and some were either fatally or seriously injured.

“It was apparent that many were seriously traumatised and felt guilty and responsible for moving people into the area of the bomb.

“I referred many officers to the police occupational health unit for professional counselling.”

Multiple hoax bomb warnings

Mr Baxter said in the following months there were multiple hoax bomb warnings in the town, using the same codeword as in the Real IRA explosion. He said they all required the evacuation of the town centre.

He said a bomb warning in September 2000, while the Omagh inquests were taking place, was the 68th police had received since August 1998.

Mr Baxter said the hoaxes caused “untold stress and anxiety” for victims and officers.

He told the inquiry that an arrest was eventually made in Co Donegal of an individual who was responsible for more than 70 hoax bomb alerts.

Mr Baxter concluded: “The impact of the bomb and subsequent events on my wellbeing were such that I cut my police career short and left in 2003.”

The inquiry was suspended while the funeral of Tracey Devine, who was severely injured in the 1998 explosion which also killed her daughter Breda, took place. Ms Devine died on Saturday.

Injured constable tells of efforts to help in aftermath of bombing

Jonathan McCambridge, Irish News, February 19th, 2025

AN RUC officer injured in the Omagh bombing has described how he tried to help victims.

Allan Palmer, a constable in 1998, remembered seeing people lying dead in front of him in the moments following the explosion.

A statement from Mr Palmer was yesterday read to the inquiry. It said he was on duty in the town when he received notification of a bomb alert in the courthouse area.

He said he directed traffic away and began to move pedestrians and shop owners from the area.

He said pedestrians were moved towards the bottom of Market Street, where the car containing the bomb had been left.

Mr Palmer said: “As we continued to move down Market Street the bomb exploded.

“All I can recall is a flash of light, a great suction and a sharp piercing pain in my back.

“At the moment the bomb exploded I was a short distance away and shards of glass from the shop windows fell into my back.”

He added: “I remember seeing all the people who were in front of me lying dead and those who remained alive had sustained serious injuries.

‘There was a buggy lying close to the bomb site but there was no child.’

The horrors, the guilt, the helplessness, the anger, the hurt and more have all had a serious impact on both my physical and psychological health. To the families and survivors, I would like to reassure you that as a police officer working on that day, my only concern was to help, serve and protect your loved ones

“There was a buggy lying close to the bomb site but there was no child. I looked for the child but to no avail.

“I then watched a man jump into the bomb crater, which was now filled with water, to see if there was anyone in the area, but no-one was found.

“I saw a woman lying on the ground with the engine of a car on top of her. Some men were trying to get the engine off her.

“I saw a male person lying near a gutter with his head on fire.

“I saw another young male lying on the ground with serious injuries to his face. There was nothing I could do to save his life.”

Mr Palmer’s statement said he was told he needed medical help, so he was driven in an RUC Land Rover to Omagh hospital, with other injured people in the back of the vehicle.

He said: “We made our way to the hospital. We transported a woman with a severe leg wound and on arrival at the hospital brought her to the entrance, just to be told that there was no more room.

A leg in a blanket

“On getting out of the police Land Rover at the hospital, a man approached my colleague and I, before handing us the leg of a person wrapped in a blanket.

“We brought the leg into the accident and emergency department and handed it to a member of the medical team.”

He said they were then redirected to the Erne Hospital in Enniskillen.

There he was told by a doctor that he needed medical attention for the cuts on his back.

His statement said: “I will never forget the horror of what I witnessed at the scene of the Omagh bomb.

“The memories and emotions that I carry with me every day are too many to include in this statement.

“The horrors, the guilt, the helplessness, the anger, the hurt and more have all had a serious impact on both my physical and psychological health.

“To the families and survivors, I would like to reassure you that as a police officer working on that day, my only concern was to help, serve and protect your loved ones.”

I was never trained for this

The inquiry then heard a statement from Julian Elliot, a sergeant in Omagh in 1998.

He told how he was sent to the town’s leisure centre, which was being used as an information point for families, in the wake of the explosion.

He said: “You can imagine the stampede that there was.

“A massive amount of people could not get hold of their relatives.”

Later, he went to the army barracks in the town, where the gym was being used as a temporary mortuary.

He said: “It was a horrendous sight to see the bays lined up in the gym, right the way around it, with a body in each bay and a number.

“Whatever state they were in, they were laid out like that.”

He told the inquiry that he spoke to the families of several people who had died.

He said: “I was never trained for this. I was never given any preparation for the like of this. This was a huge, momentous and horrendous occasion.”

He added: “It affected me greatly afterwards. I saw these people in my sleep.”

Death of Omagh victims campaigner

THE death of the courageous campaigner Tracey Devine, as major attention focuses on the harrowing evidence heard daily during the Omagh bomb inquiry, was poignant in every respect.

Mrs Devine, whose 20-month old daughter, Breda, was one of the youngest victims of the 1998 carnage, died at the weekend, and was buried yesterday in Aughabrack, Co Tyrone.

Many tributes have been paid to her, with Kevin Skelton, whose wife, Philomena, was one of the 29 fatalities in the explosion, including a woman pregnant with twins, saying that he never heard her voice anger towards those who murdered her daughter.

Mr Skelton said: “She was a credit to her family and someone who carried her immense grief with dignity.”

“It must be hoped that the inquiry will finally establish the full truth of what happened on August 15, 1998, including the calamitous failures of the security services on both sides of the border

Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aiden, was also killed in the outrage, described Mrs Devine and her husband, Paul, as quiet and polite individuals, saying: “Tracey was especially dignified and gracious. Nobody should have to suffer what those parents went through.”

Her death came only days after her brother Garry McGillion gave a moving testimony to the Omagh hearing about the events that have haunted him “every day for the past 26 years”.

Last Wednesday, Mr McGallion testified that, on the day of the attack he was in the Co Tyrone town with his sister, his infant niece and his then fiancé Donna-Marie Keys preparing for their forthcoming wedding.

He said the shopping trip had been arranged to buy his goddaughter Breda shoes for the wedding, where she was to be a flower girl.

After the explosion, he handed Breda over to a police officer, saying: “I felt her heartbeat on my chest. To this day, I still feel it.” When Mr McGillion later found out she had died, he said, it “ripped my heart out”.

What comes across time and again as witnesses address the inquiry is their bravery and honesty, in stark contrast to those who planted the bomb with a totally inadequate warning, in the knowledge they were recklessly endangering everyone in the centre of Omagh.

The attack was perpetrated by the Real IRA, using the methods, former personnel and materials of the Provisional IRA, demonstrating again the entirely evil nature of all paramilitary violence, whether instigated by republicans or loyalists.

It must be hoped the inquiry will finally establish the full truth of what happened on August 15, 1998, including the calamitous failures of the security services on both sides of the border.

Sadly, the outcome will come too late for Tracey Devine, who died without seeing anyone brought to justice for the atrocity which murdered her daughter, and many other innocent people.