Relatives of Omagh victims to meet MPs

Relatives of those killed in the Omagh bombing are to meet MPs today as part of their battle for a public inquiry.

Relatives of those killed in the Omagh bombing are to meet MPs today as part of their battle for a public inquiry.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden died in the 1998 Real IRA Omagh blast, will be among those briefing the Westminster committee at Stormont.

The families want a cross-Border public inquiry considering security force intelligence before the explosion and the failure to secure convictions.

Mr Gallagher said: “Over the past 10 years the families have been taken to hell and back and there needs to be some degree of closure in Omagh.

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“We feel that the best way forward is a full cross-border public inquiry. We are not saying to the government that they have got to spend money on the scale of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry or that it’s got to take years, but the government should work with the families and try and find a way forward that everybody can live with.”

The House of Commons’ Northern Ireland Affairs Committee is at Stormont today for a series of evidence sessions.

Mr Gallagher has been critical of the British and Irish governments’ investigation into Omagh killings. The Real IRA car bomb is believed to have been driven from the Republic.

Co Armagh electrician Sean Hoey was tried for murder but acquitted.

A total of 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, died when the massive car bomb detonated on a busy Saturday afternoon in Omagh’s main shopping street.

PA