Northern Ireland: 1998 Omagh bombing that killed 29 people could have been prevented, says UK court

By Euronews with AP, AFP • Updated: 23/07/2021 - 

Royal Ulster Constabulary Police officers stand on Market Street at the scene of a car bombing. - Copyright AP Photo / Paul McErlane, FILE 1998


A Northern Ireland court has said that the 1998 Omagh bombing could have been prevented by UK authorities.

Judges have ordered the UK and the Republic of Ireland to open an investigation into the car bombing that killed 29 people.

High Court Justice Mark Horner said the inquiries needed to determine whether a more "proactive" security approach could have thwarted the attack.


Another 220 were injured in the car bombing on 15 August 1998, which took place in a small shopping street in the Northern Irish town of Omagh.

The car bombing at Omagh was carried out by the group calling themselves the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA), but no one has been held criminally responsible for the attack.

Victims of the blast included a woman pregnant with twins, and many young people, including two Spanish tourists.

The bombing was the worst single atrocity of the Troubles, a three-decade-long conflict involving Irish republicans, British loyalist paramilitaries, and UK troops.


But judges on Friday found there were "plausible" claims that "there was a real possibility of preventing the Omagh bombing".

"I am satisfied that certain grounds when considered separately or together give rise to plausible allegations that there was a real prospect of preventing the Omagh bombing,'' Horner said at the court in Belfast.

"These grounds involve the consideration of terrorist activity on both sides of the border by prominent dissident terrorist republicans leading up to the Omagh bomb."

The case was brought eight years ago by Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was killed in the blast.

Gallagher had challenged the British government's refusal to conduct a public inquiry into the bombing.

He claimed that the bombing could have been prevented if British security agents and police officers from the Royal Ulster Constabulary had combined their intelligence on dissident republic groups.

Two anonymous calls had raised the alarm 40 minutes before the bomb went off, but police claim the location given for the attack was wrong.

Northern Ireland: UK plans to end prosecutions for historical 'Troubles' crimes

The UK had argued that a police ombudsman investigation was the best way to address any outstanding issues in the Omagh attack. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said that the government would wait to review the full decision before deciding how to proceed.

"We recognise [what] the court has set out today ... and that more should be done to investigate this," Lewis said in a statement released after the ruling.

"The UK government will take time to consider the judge's statement and all its recommendations carefully as we wait for the full judgment to be published."

Judges in Belfast did note that they had no authority to compel officials in the Republic of Ireland to conduct their own inquiry, but said that a parallel inquiry across the border would be a "real advantage".

Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin has said that his government would analyse the judgment and do "what is necessary for the citizens of the island of Ireland".

Earlier this month, the UK government presented a controversial plan to end all prosecutions related to the Northern Ireland conflict, denounced by all sides as an "amnesty".

Omagh bombing: Judge fears security failures before 1998 attack
Ruling is a vindication for families campaign to find out the truth behind blast that killed 29 people

The Omagh bombing in 1998 killed 29 people. PA Images via Getty Images

Paul Peachey
Jul 23, 2021

A British judge has called on the UK and Irish governments to hold inquiries into the 1998 Omagh bombing by Irish nationalists after concluding there had been a “real prospect” of preventing an attack that killed 29 people.

Eight years ago, families of the victims challenged the UK government’s refusal to hold a public inquiry after commissioning a report that concluded that key evidence about the bomb plot was either missed or not passed on.

Mr Justice Horner on Friday stopped short of calling for the public inquiry demanded by many of the families into the worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict, known as the Troubles. But he said the two governments should investigate whether a more proactive security approach could have thwarted the terrorists.

The attack in the Northern Irish town came four months after the Good Friday Peace Agreement was signed that largely brought peace to the island of Ireland after three decades of civil strife.

The Omagh attack was carried out by dissidents opposed to the agreement.

In his long-anticipated judgment delivered at a court in Belfast, Mr Justice Horner said: “I am satisfied that certain grounds when considered separately or together give rise to plausible allegations that there was a real prospect of preventing the Omagh bombing.”

Michael Gallagher, whose son was killed in the blast, launched the review in 2013. The report he and other families commissioned drew on hundreds of pages of emails between David Rupert – an American trucker-turned-informant who infiltrated republican paramilitaries – and his handler from the British security agency MI5.

It is understood the emails provided detail on potential planning, locations and personnel for an attack in the run-up to the blast on August 15, 1998, when a stolen Vauxhall car was packed with 500lb of explosives and detonated in the town centre.

The families say those details were not shared with police on either side of the border before the attack or during the investigation to find out who was responsible.

The families believe the Rupert emails, along with warnings of a dissident operation from an agent for British military intelligence and an anonymous tip-off 11 days before the attack naming three men, should have prompted a security operation in Omagh that could have prevented the attack.

Copies of the emails were obtained by the families, and sections were used in a civil case which saw them win £1.6m ($2.2m) in 2009 against four men found liable for the murders.

Mr Gallagher welcomed the ruling on Friday and said the families’ campaign had been vindicated.

“We knew … that this was a preventable atrocity, but it's one thing for me to say it, it's an entirely different thing for a senior High Court judge to,” he said.


The UK government said it would consider the judgment before announcing its next step.

The Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said: “We recognise that today the court has set out that there are 'plausible allegations that there was a real prospect of preventing the Omagh bombing' and that more should be done to investigate this.”

The Irish government said that it would "do what was necessary" following the ruling.

Jason McCue, a lawyer who has campaigned for justice of victims of Irish republican violence but was not involved in the action, said: “The families deserve the truth and justice. Their determined and persistent fight for such should be applauded. Today was another significant step.”

The attack in Omagh was carried out using a massive fertiliser bomb. No one has ever been convicted.

Republican factions had for years had received material and support from the Libyan regime of Muammar Qaddafi, including Semtex that was used in other high-profile attacks.