The Omagh bomb: Say Nothing

I’ve just been listening to part of an RTÉ Radio One report on the  Omagh Bomb Inquiry being conducted at present. As often happens, the details of those killed are appalling – a woman blown to bits,   identifiable only by a shoe and her fingerprint. People planning a fortieth wedding anniversary but meeting death instead. A husband driving everywhere in the wild hope that his loved ones will be found. Heart-breaking. I know well those streets where the bomb went off – I went to the barber’s  shop a few yards from the bomb’s detonation point, I got my first date with a girl a few yards in the other direction.

But what these harrowing reports seem incapable of doing is pulling back the camera from the horror and asking “Who was responsible for this?” The answer is, of course, the Real IRA. But it goes deeper than that.

Ever since 1998, there have been suspicions that a security forces spy may have been among the bombers.  The Real IRA was deeply infiltrated by MI5, the RUC and the Gardaí. It seems highly likely that some of their agents told them about the plans for Omagh.  An American called David Rupert, who worked for the FBI and MI5 as an informer, gave information that led to the arrest and conviction of the Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt.  It’s hard to believe that Rupert would not have had information before the attack.

It is a fact that in the months before the Omagh bomb, multiple warnings were given that it was being planned.  There were also reports that MI5 knew  about what was coming, and the warning was ignored and the bomb team allowed to proceed, to protect the security forces spy or spies. Some years after the bomb, the BBC revealed that anonymous tip-offs had been given before the attack , but ignored.  In 2008  a retired Detective Superintendent in the RUC, Norman Baxter, claimed the British and Irish governments withheld information; some of the victims’ relatives have accused the authorities of a cover-up. In his book The Omagh Bombing and the Search for Justice,  Kevin Fulton suggested a British spy was among the bombers and that British intelligence chose not to intervene. And of course we know that British intelligence allowed Freddie Scappaticci to act with impunity, as he was their spy.

If the British or Irish governments were to come clean on claims that they had allowed the bomb to happen, the response of the bereaved families and society in general  would be one of mass outrage. Which is why neither the British nor the Irish authorities will ever admit what they know.  In this they are protected by the media, who choose to ignore the facts behind the bomb and instead serve the public with horrific and distracting details.

Say nothing, indeed.