The names of each of the 29 people killed in the Omagh bombing, including a mother and her unborn twins, have been read out as the public inquiry into the attack reopened.
Bereaved families and survivors gathered at the Strule arts centre in County Tyrone for the inquiry, which will examine whether UK authorities could reasonably have prevented the Real IRA bombing on 15 August 1998.
In a hushed hall, the inquiry chair, Alan Turnbull, thanked those who had chosen to engage.
He opened by speaking of the “distressing and difficult experience” of those who had volunteered to engage in the process, with memories inevitably flooding back to when the 500lb bomb exploded killing 29 and injuring 220 others.
It was the largest single incident in the Troubles in Northern Ireland and sent shock waves across the island of Ireland and beyond, with casualties from Northern Ireland, Ireland, England and Spain.
“For many, revisiting the thoughts and emotions of loss and injury has been very upsetting,” Turnbull said.
Some of the statements submitted to the inquiry have been redacted but Turnbull said he had read them all. He said some of the evidence would be triggering and the inquiry would from time to time warn of the harrowing detail to come to allow people to exit the room should they wish.
Those who were watching the inquiry in person or online would be “be shocked at the level of grief imposed on ordinary, decent members of society doing nothing other than living their daily lives”, Turnbull said.
He said he hoped the evidence would mean that the “devastating and lasting impact of terrible random violence”, which “otherwise might be incomprehensible to those who have no such experience in their lives”, would be understood by all.
He said it was his sincere hope that all those who supported or condoned the bombing would learn of the “indiscriminate and devastating consequences of such selfish conduct for innocent, hard-working and caring people of all ages and for their communities”.
Victims will take centre stage at this phase of the inquiry, which is scheduled to last four weeks. Bereaved families will give pen portraits of those who died, followed by evidence from survivors, emergency services and those working in statutory organisations.
Opening the commemorations, the counsel for the inquiry Paul Greaney KC described the bombing as “an act of savagery” made “all the more wicked if that were possible” because it came three months after the public had voted in a referendum to accept the Good Friday/Belfast agreement.
He proceeded to read out the names of each of the victims, including unborn twins, babies, children and young people, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and grandparents.
Due to be commemorated on Tuesday were a 12-year-old Spanish boy, Fernando Blasco Baselga, and his youth leader, Rocío Abad Ramos, 23. Ramos, a science student, had been due to return to Spain for her sister’s wedding and was one month from finishing a biology degree.
No one was ever convicted over the atrocity but the dissident Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt was found responsible in a 2009 civil case. Colm Murphy, who died in 2023, was convicted of being involved in the plot but was cleared in a retrial.
