PSNI says device was attempt to disrupt memorial in town where 29 people were killed by Real IRA bomb in 1998

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Police have confirmed that a device left close to a Remembrance Sunday commemoration in Omagh was a viable pipe bomb.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the bomb was an attempt to disrupt Poppy Day in the County Tyrone town, which was the site of the deadliest atrocity of the 30-year Troubles.



PSNI chief constable George Hamilton described it as “a sickening and appalling act”. He said: “This small but potentially dangerous device was left to cause the maximum amount of disruption to the Remembrance Sunday commemorations.

“Whilst our investigation into the incident is at a very early stage, one strong line of inquiry is that violent dissident republicans are responsible.



“Their actions today have demonstrated the disregard and disrespect they have for this community, which has already suffered so much pain and hurt at the hands of terrorists.”



In August 1998, months after the Good Friday Agreement that largely ended violence, 29 men, women and children were killed by a Real IRA bomb in Omagh.

Following the bomb alert on Sunday morning the PSNI had to clear an area in the centre of the town. The Remembrance Day parade was eventually allowed to go ahead.

PSNI chief inspector Graham Dodds described those responsible as “sickening cowards” who were determined “to create fear and disruption on a day when many gather to pay their respects to the brave men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice, and must be unreservedly condemned”.

The local Democratic Unionist Assembly member Tom Buchanan said: “It is disgusting that anyone would target a war memorial at any time, but on Remembrance Sunday it is an act of particular hatred.”

The Sinn Féin MP for the area, Barry McElduff, said everyone had the “unfettered right” to remember their dead. “Whoever decided to leave a package in this area, a suspicious package, obviously has shown complete disregard for everyone in the community,” he said.

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Meanwhile, Catholic parishioners have heard statements at Sunday mass in Enniskillen in nearby Co Fermanagh informing them that the church had no objection to a memorial marking the 30th anniversary of an IRA bomb atrocity.

Eleven Protestant civilians were killed by the IRA bomb on Remembrance Sunday in 1987 at the cenotaph in Enniskillen. Last week during a service to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Enniskillen massacre a memorial stone was unveiled containing the names of all those killed in the explosion.

The memorial was to be left on church ground owned by the Catholic St Michael’s parish in Enniskillen. However, the stone was removed later that afternoon after the Catholic diocese trust said there were a number of legal issues surrounding the site of the memorial. In a statement from Monsignor Joseph McGuiness, who read out all masses in St Michael’s Parish over the weekend, it was made clear the church had no objection to the memorial.

Later on Sunday, Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, laid a wreath at the Enniskillen cenotaph to remember the tens of thousands of Irish service personnel killed in both world wars. Last week, Varadkar became the first taoiseach of the Irish Republic to wear a poppy during parliamentary debates in the Dail.

