Irish state at fault for not preventing Omagh bomb, says lawyer seeking inquiry

The Omagh bombing could have been prevented if it was not for a “catastrophic failure of intelligence sharing” on the part of the Irish state, according to the legal team calling for a public inquiry.

On August 15 1998, a dissident republican car bombing in Omagh killed 29 people, including a woman who was pregnant with twins, in the worst single atrocity in the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The High Court in Dublin heard on Tuesday that on the night before the bombing, a warning call was received by the Irish Army at Finner Camp in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, which ended with the ominous words, “Omagh, Omagh, Omagh”.

That warning was never passed to the security forces in Northern Ireland.

On August 12 the security forces in Northern Ireland did receive information that the Real IRA were planning to move explosives north in the following days.

Speaking after mention in the High Court, Conor Cullen, a solicitor calling for an inquiry, said that if the second piece of information mentioning Omagh had been shared, the bombing could have been avoided.

“If those two pieces of intelligence had been combined, the Omagh bombing could well have been prevented,” he said.

“This is a catastrophic failure of intelligence sharing, and essentially it falls squarely at the feet of the Irish state, and therefore that must be properly investigated in this state.”

The Conway judicial review is brought forward by Shawneen Conway, whose brother Gareth Conway was killed in the 1998 attack.

The review, which seeks to compel the Irish Government to establish a public inquiry into the Omagh bombing, was before the High Court on Tuesday for mention.

In Belfast, a separate, adjacent inquiry is ongoing to examine whether the explosion could have been prevented by UK authorities.

In the Four Courts, the judge, Ms Justice Mary Rose Gearty, granted three weeks for the legal team to draft further affidavit evidence, relating to information uncovered in the Belfast inquiry.

The Omagh Bombing Inquiry in Belfast was told on October 12 that an Irish Army camp received a warning call the day before the bombing, ending with the words ‘Omagh! Omagh! Omagh!’.

Journalist John Ware, who reported extensively on the bombing, relayed a note given to him before he addressed the court, referencing a call received on August 14 1998 at Finner Camp.

His note said: “The caller wasn’t drunk. Sounded sensible. Said ‘get on to the guards, tell them to check the back routes or back roads’. And then repeats three times, ‘Omagh! Omagh! Omagh!’.”

The legal team behind the Conway judicial review said it also intends to highlight the Irish state’s refusal to permit them to use the document containing that warning.

They said it is only available now because it was pursued through the inquiry in Belfast and they succeeded in bringing the material into the public domain.

Speaking after the sitting in the High Court on Tuesday, Mr Cullen said questions have to be asked about not only why the information wasn’t shared at the time, but why the Irish state had not made it available to the Omagh Bombing Inquiry in Belfast sooner.

“That’s another question that needs to be addressed,” he said.

“Why has it not been shared previously? Obviously, on the night before the bomb, and why has it not been previously provided by the Irish state?

“This is a fluid situation in that there’s information arising from the ongoing inquiry in the north, which is highly relevant to these proceedings, and in the information that we’re receiving from the large batches of disclosure, which have been essentially dumped on the legal teams in the north, we’re finding nuggets of information which are highly relevant.

“It obviously takes the work of the inquiry in the north to uncover that information. But now that we have it, it obviously adds to the strength of this case, and as to why the Irish state must fully investigate the intelligence sharing.”