Murdered teen had 'so much promise, kindness and love', sister says

A teenager who was killed in the Omagh bombing had just gained a place on a university engineering course when he was killed, an inquiry has heard.

Three more victims of the attack, which was the single biggest atrocity of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, were commemorated at the Omagh Bombing Inquiry on Thursday.

The attack, carried out in 1998 by the Real IRA (RIRA), killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

Gareth Conway had gone into the town to buy jeans for a date with his girlfriend when he was killed.

The 18-year-old's sister, Shawneen Conway, was a nurse at Tyrone County Hospital and went to work after hearing about the bomb - it was then that she heard he was missing.

During Thursday's hearing at the Strule Arts Centre, Ms Conway described her brother as "a young man with so much promise, kindness and love".

In a statement she read to the inquiry, she said: "It is heartbreaking he was taken from us.

"Our family was never whole again."

She said she has had to have counselling to manage her sorrow.

"Since Gareth's passing, not one Christmas has been happy, or even bearable," she said.

"His life may have been cut short but his impact will never be forgotten."

Earlier on Thursday, the inquiry heard how a victim of the attack had been accepted into university on the day of her funeral.

Debra-Anne Cartwright, 20, was killed on Market Street, after the beauty salon she worked in was evacuated due to the bomb warning.

At the time, she was awaiting A-level results.

Lawyer John Rafferty told the inquiry that she had applied for a textile design course and news of her success was received just days after the bombing.

Lord Turnbull, the inquiry's chairman, said the details "further compound the cruel denial of her future".

Geraldine Breslin was a 43-year-old mother who worked as a shop assistant at Watterson's drapers.

Eyewitnesses said they saw her calling out for her husband in the aftermath of the attack in spite of her serious injuries.

She died eight hours after the blas; at the inquest into the deaths the coroner said she had been "fighting very much to live".

Her son, Gareth McCrystal, described her as an "Omagh woman through and through" at the hearing on Thursday.

"We had a wonderful relationship," he said.

"Amazing - one in a million - she was an absolute class act.

"She was authentic, she was genuine, she was kind and she was loved.

"She had a laugh that made you want to be in her presence," he recalled.

Mr McCrystal, who was aged 15 at the time of the bombing, said aspects of that day felt "like yesterday to him".

He said his mother's death had a terrible impact on the family, describing his father's life being "stolen" from him.

"The house is still decorated in the style it was in 1998 and my father still hasn't parted with many of my mother's possession," he said.

The inquiry has adjourned until next Monday, when the lives of more victims will be marked in commemorative evidence.

Chairman Lord Turnbull said it was fitting the first week of hearings ended "with such a potent reminder of the impact of the bombing".

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• VICTIMS: Who were the 29 people who died?

The bomb exploded in Omagh town centre on a busy Saturday afternoon on 15 August 1998.

The attack took place four months after the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

The RIRA - a dissident republican paramilitary group - disagreed with the Provisional IRA's decision to call a ceasefire ahead of the talks and continued to plant car bombs in towns across Northern Ireland.

But the Omagh bomb was by far the RIRA's most deadly attack.

Nine children, including a baby, were among the dead.

More than 200 other people were wounded, some of whom survived with life-changing injuries.

Three days after the 1998 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, the judge in that case ruled four of the 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.

The Omagh Bombing Inquiry is seeking to determine whether the bombing could have been prevented by UK state authorities.

This phase of the inquiry will last four weeks and will also hearing evidence from survivors and first responders.