Report into Omagh bomb claims atrocity could have been prevented

The Omagh bomb could have been prevented had intelligence services on both sides of the Border shared crucial information in the run-up to the atrocity, a report into the 1998 Real IRA attack has claimed.

Twenty-nine people, including a woman heavily pregnant with twins, died when a car bomb detonated in the Co Tyrone market town on August 15th, 1998. Hundreds more were injured in the bombing.

Commissioned by relatives of those killed and injured in the attack, the Omagh Bomb Report contains a number of allegations about intelligence failings on both sides of the Border. Compiled by Martin Bridger, former deputy director of investigations for the Police Ombudsman, the report was completed last May and presented to the Irish and British governments.

Nally Report
It includes a claim rejected by the 2003 Nally Report that a senior garda was aware that dissident republicans were looking for a vehicle to transport a bomb days ahead of the attack and failed to pass the information on to police in Northern Ireland. It also includes a claim that the British security services were actively monitoring key individuals linked to the atrocity on the day of the attack.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the bombing, outlined the contents of the report with Mr Bridger at a briefing for TDs and Senators in Leinster House yesterday chaired by Independent Mattie McGrath. Mr Gallagher repeated a call for a full cross-Border independent judicial inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the attack.

Public inquiry
"To date we have not heard from either government on the report and the call for a public inquiry. We say the information contained within the report is sufficient material for a public inquiry," Mr Gallagher said.

“There’s a very strong cross-Border element to Omagh. We felt the crime should have been (subject to) a joint criminal investigation rather than two separate investigations.”

Key Issues

Mr Bridger, who worked with the Metropolitan Police anti-corruption squad before going work for Nuala O’Loan in Belfast, said the terms of reference of inquiries that have taken place into the Omagh bombing to-date have been “too narrow.” The latest report draws on several official reviews and reports into the atrocity. “We pulled the jigsaw puzzle together and there are certainly a lot of really crucial questions that need to be asked of both governments in a public inquiry,” he said.

The report examines key issues such as whether the intelligence services were aware of Omagh as a possible target for Republican dissidents, whether police were actively aware of the bomb operation on the day of the attack and whether intelligence known before the attack could have prevented the atrocity had it been shared between agencies.