Omagh Bombing Inquiry hears of 'kind and generous' victims

Tributes have been paid to two Spanish victims of the Omagh bombing during the first phase of a public inquiry into the 1998 atrocity.

Fernando Blasco Baselga, 12, and Rocio Abad Ramos, 23, were in Omagh in County Tyrone as part of a language exchange group.

The attack, carried out in 1998 by the dissident republican Real IRA, was the biggest single atrocity of the Northern Ireland Troubles, killing 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.

Fernando was described as a happy and generous child with a strong religious faith, while the inquiry heard Ms Ramos was kind and compassionate.

The inquiry opened with its chairman, Lord Turnbull, stating he was "shocked at the level of grief" imposed on bereaved families and survivors.

Lord Turnbull said evidence would "give real insight into the devastating and lasting impact of terrible and random violence which otherwise might be incomprehensible to those who have no such experience in their lives".

The names of those murdered in the attack were read out and a minute's silence observed at the opening session.

Paul Greaney KC, senior counsel to the inquiry, said the statements and personal testimony were a key starting point in the inquiry.

"Understanding the impact of the bombing is critical to the investigation of the issue of preventability and for that reason we will not shy away from shining a bright light on the terrible consequences of that day," he said.

The inquiry seeks to determine whether the bombing could have been prevented by UK state authorities.

This phase of the inquiry, at Strule Arts Centre in Omagh, will last four weeks and is also hearing evidence from survivors and first responders.

Fernando Blasco Baselga was part of a language exchange programme staying in Buncrana, County Donegal, which had come to Omagh for a visit to the Ulster American Folk Park.

They had stopped in the town centre to shop when the bomb went off.

A statement from the Baselga family was read out by solicitor Michael Donaghy.

The inquiry was told he played handball for his school team and his favourite dish was rice salad.

He was participating in the exchange group for a second time when he died.

His body was given a military escort home for his funeral in Madrid.

Rocio Abad Ramos, 23, was part of the same language exchange group as a team leader.

Her sister Paloma told the inquiry her sibling was a "special person".

She gave evidence through an interpreter, occasionally lifting her glasses to wipe away tears.

"Our parents left Rocio at the airport," she said.

"She was so excited to be going on the trip and having just finished her studies, she had a world of possibilities ahead of her.

"As our parents hugged and said goodbye to Rocio, little did they know that this was to be the last time they would see their daughter alive."

Earlier, Michael Gallagher, who lost his 21-year-old son Aiden in the attack, said he was "grateful that the victims are centre and front and a voice will be given to them".

"I think it's important the world knows the type of people we lost in Omagh that day," he said.

"Hearing those beautiful innocent people's lives, what they were like as people, what their dreams were."

The Irish government has promised to co-operate with the inquiry – the bombers launched the attack from across the border.

Visiting Stormont on Tuesday, Tánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) Simon Harris reiterated that.

Dublin previously indicated there was no new evidence to merit a separate public inquiry in the Republic of Ireland.

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

The streets were packed with shoppers, including families who were buying uniforms and other supplies as children were due to return to school after summer.

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

Also known as the Belfast Agreement, the international peace deal helped to bring an end to 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland, knowns as the Troubles.

The treaty had ushered in a period of hope and optimism but not everyone involved in the conflict supported the outcome of the peace talks.

The Real IRA (RIRA) - a dissident republican paramilitary group - had disagreed with the decision of the much larger Provisional IRA to call a ceasefire ahead of the talks.

It set up its own faction and continued to plant car bombs in towns across Northern Ireland, some of which exploded causing multiple injuries.

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.

A handful of men have been prosecuted on charges linked to the attack but each of them were either acquitted or had their convictions overturned on appeal.

With no criminal convictions secured, the victims' families then began a landmark civil case, suing five men they alleged were involved in the bombing.

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.

Michael McKevitt, who was alleged to have been the leader of the Real IRA at the time of the bombing, died in 2021 having been diagnosed with cancer.

He had spent 15 years in jail after an Irish court convicted him of directing terrorism, a new offence introduced by the Irish government in response to the Omagh bomb.

Colm Murphy, originally from County Armagh, was jailed for 14 years in 2002 when a Dublin court found him guilty of conspiracy to cause the Omagh bombing.

However, his conviction was ruled to be unsafe in 2005 and he was cleared of the charge in a 2010 retrial.

He died in hospital aged 70 in 2023.

In 2016, a case against Seamus Daly, from Jonesborough, County Armagh, collapsed.