Omagh bombing
| Omagh bombing | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Troubles | |
 The red Vauxhall Cavalier containing the bomb. This photograph was taken shortly before the explosion; the camera was found in the rubble. | |
| Location | 54°36′01″N 07°17′56″W / 54.60028°N 7.29889°W Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland |
| Date | 15 August 1998 3:04 pm (BST) |
| Target | Courthouse[1] |
Attack type | Car bomb |
| Deaths | 29[2][3][4] |
| Injured | About 220 initially reported;[5] later reports stated over 300[3][6][7] |
| Perpetrators | Real IRA[3][4] |
A car bombing took place in the town of Omagh in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland on 15 August 1998.[5] It was carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA), a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) splinter group who opposed the IRA's ceasefire and the Good Friday Agreement, signed earlier in the year. The bombing killed 29 people and injured about 220 others,[8] making it the deadliest incident of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the second deadliest incident of the conflict overall after the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974. Telephoned warnings which did not specify the location had been sent almost forty minutes beforehand, and police inadvertently moved people towards the bomb.[9]
The bombing caused outrage both locally and internationally,[7][10] spurred the Northern Ireland peace process,[2][3][11] and dealt a severe blow to the dissident Irish republican campaign. The Real IRA denied that the bomb was intended to kill civilians and apologised; shortly after, the group declared a ceasefire.[11] The victims included people of many backgrounds and ages: Protestants, Catholics, six teenagers, six children, a woman pregnant with twins, two Spanish tourists[12] and others on a day trip from the Republic of Ireland. Both unionists and Irish nationalists were killed and injured. As a result of the bombing, new anti-terrorism laws were swiftly enacted by the United Kingdom and Ireland.
There have been allegations that British, Irish and US intelligence agencies had information which could have prevented the bombing, most of which came from double agents inside the Real IRA,[13] but this information was not given to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC).[13] In 2008, the BBC reported that British intelligence agency GCHQ had recorded conversations between the bombers as the bomb was being driven into Omagh.[14]
A 2001 report by the Police Ombudsman said that the RUC Special Branch failed to act on prior warnings and criticised the RUC's investigation of the bombing.[15] Police reportedly obtained circumstantial and coincidental evidence against some suspects, but were unable to convict.[16] Colm Murphy was tried and convicted of conspiring to cause the bombing, but was released on appeal after it was revealed that the Garda Síochána forged interview notes used in the case.[17] Murphy's nephew Sean Hoey was also tried but was acquitted.[18] In June 2009, the victims' families won a £1.6 million civil action settlement against four defendants, who were found liable for the bombing.[19] In 2014, Seamus Daly was charged with the murder of 29 people;[20] the case against him was withdrawn in 2016.[21]
Background
[edit]After negotiations to end the Troubles failed in 1996, political violence resumed in Northern Ireland and peaked during the Drumcree crises.[22] The peace process resumed in 1997. Sinn Féin accepted the Mitchell Principles in September 1997, which involved commitment to non-violence as part of the peace process negotiations.[23] Dissident members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who saw this as a betrayal of the republican struggle for a united Ireland, left in October 1997 to form the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA).[23]