Last day of commemorative hearings | UK News

The final day of commemorative hearings in the Omagh Bombing Inquiry will get under way later.

The Real IRA bomb killed 29 people in the County Tyrone town in August 1998, including a woman who was pregnant with twins.

For the past four weeks the inquiry, in the Strule Arts Centre in the town, has been hearing evidence from victims’ families, as well as survivors and those who helped in the aftermath of the atrocity.

It is an independent statutory inquiry which has been asked to consider whether the bomb “could have reasonably been prevented”.

At this phase in the inquiry, those who lost their lives in the bombing have been remembered.

The inquiry has also been hearing from people injured in the atrocity, and members of the emergency services who went to the bomb scene.

These hearings have allowed the Chairman, The Rt Hon Lord Turnbull, to hear directly from those most affected by the bombing, “so he can understand the terrible consequences people suffered because of the bomb”.

The bomb that devastated Omagh town centre in August 1998 was the biggest single atrocity in the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

It came less than three months after the people of Northern Ireland had voted yes to the Good Friday Agreement.

Three days after the attack, the Real IRA released a statement claiming responsibility for the explosion.

It apologised to “civilian” victims and said its targets had been commercial.

Almost 27 years on, no-one has been convicted of carrying out the murders by a criminal court.

In 2009, a judge ruled that four men – Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were all liable for the Omagh bomb.

The four men were ordered to pay a total of £1.6m in damages to the relatives, but appeals against the ruling delayed the compensation process.

A fifth man, Seamus McKenna, was acquitted in the civil action and later died in a roofing accident in 2013.

After years of campaigning by relatives, the public inquiry was established to examine if the Real IRA attack could have been prevented by UK authorities.

This phase of the inquiry is continuing to hear powerful individual testimonies from relatives who lost loved ones in the explosion.

The bombers planned and launched the attack from the Republic of Ireland and the Irish government has promised to co-operate with the inquiry.

However, the victims’ relatives wanted the Irish government to order its own separate public inquiry.

Dublin previously indicated there was no new evidence to merit such a move.