VICTIMS of the Omagh bombing intend to use a public inquiry to “heap shame” on the Irish Government for its failings over the atrocity, a barrister has said.
The inquiry also heard that victims are “sick and tired of platitudes, false assurances and broken promises” from Dublin over the bombing.
The Omagh Bombing Inquiry, chaired by Lord Turnbull, is hearing opening statements from core participants.
On Tuesday the focus moved to statements from the legal representatives of bereaved families.
The Real IRA bomb in the Co Tyrone town in August 1998 killed 29 people, including a woman who was pregnant with twins, in the worst single atrocity in the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
The public inquiry was set up by the previous government to examine whether the explosion could have been prevented by the UK authorities.
Barrister Alan Kane KC delivered a statement on behalf of the families of Omagh victims represented by solicitor John McBurney.
These include the families of Debra-Anne Cartwright, Olive Hawkes, Julia Hughes, Philomena Skelton, Samantha McFarland, Alan Radford, Lorraine Wilson, who were all killed in the massacre, as well as several other people who were injured.
He told the inquiry: “It is important that we always keep in focus that it was republican terrorists under the name Real IRA who planned and planted the Omagh bomb.
“They alone are responsible for the loss and hurt caused by it.
“On hearing the accounts of so many at the commemorative hearings, it beggars all belief as to what else was intended other than murderous carnage by leaving a bomb in a peaceful town’s main street on a busy sunny Saturday afternoon where so many innocent women, children and men were likely to be.
“The preventability of the murders and injuries was at all times within the absolute control of the Real IRA.”
He added: “Our clients are of the clear belief that whatever aspects of preventability may lie at the door of the UK state authorities, blame, to a greater or lesser extent, rests with the state authorities in the Republic of Ireland.
“Our clients again renew their call for a parallel inquiry to be immediately established by the Government of the Republic of Ireland, a call that they should not be required to repeat.
“Our clients remain greatly disappointed at the lack of any commitment of the authorities in the Republic of Ireland to meaningfully assist this inquiry.
“They regard the memorandum of understanding, agreed with the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Ireland as wholly unsatisfactory.
“Our clients wish to use this inquiry to heap shame on the Government of the Republic of Ireland for their failures.”
