Omagh bomb victims’ names read aloud as public inquiry reopens

The sister of a 23-year-old Spanish visitor killed in the devastating Omagh bomb has said the public inquiry into the atrocity is allowing the family “to close a wound that has been open for 26 years”.

During the opening day of the resumed inquiry, Paloma Abad Ramos told of the “mind-blowing shock” she and her family felt in 1998 when they learned the youngest of three daughters, Rocio, had been caught up in a bomb in a foreign country.

She was one of 29 victims, along with two unborn twins, who were killed that day as a 500lb bomb planted by the Real IRA ripped through the town. The bombing sent shock waves around the world, coming just months after the Good Friday peace agreement.

During her near two-hour testimony to the public inquiry, Abad Ramos recalled how she came home to Madrid in August 1998 to a family gathering she thought was a surprise birthday party.

“Instead it was me who had the surprise,” she said, recalling the moment her older sister Anna broke the news in one of the “most terrible moments” of her life.

Highlighting how shock can manifest itself in many ways, she said: “She was crying telling me, and I reacted with a burst of laughter because I was so nervous, I couldn’t control myself. I could not stop for one hour.”

She shared harrowing details of seeing the remains of her sister and thanked the inquiry chair for the “only support” her family felt they had in their quest for truth “for many, many years”.

It was Rocio’s fifth trip to Ireland to learn English. She had just finished a biology degree with plans to be a school teacher and was “super excited” about the summer because it was her first time as a youth leader in charge of 31 children going to Buncrana in County Donegal as part of an exchange programme.

She and some of the children, along with some locals, were on a day trip to Omagh when the bomb exploded, instantly killing her and some of her young charges, including 12-year-old Fernando Blasco Baselga, whose family submitted a short statement about the impact of their loss.

Abad Ramos told how she and about 20 other bereaved Spanish people were taken by military plane to Northern Ireland in the aftermath.

“Imagine a military plane with no seats, seated on a net with 20 more people, family members of wounded and victims, it was a very tense situation,” she told the inquiry recounting a similar trip home with the coffins.

“This trip was filled with sadness, with a lot of distress,” she said.

She recalled the moment her parents took her to see her sister’s remains. “That impacted me really, really heavily,” she said.

Her father kissed his daughter on the forehead. She recalled the Spanish ambassador to Ireland who stood with him saying: “I’ve never seen so much love in a kiss.”

She also told of the upset caused by the huge media interest and the large funeral organised by the state for Rocio and Fernando. It prompted the family to have a second funeral for family and friends a month later.

The names of each of the 29 people killed were read out as the public inquiry reopened on Tuesday.

The inquiry was established by the British government to examine whether the attack could have been prevented.

No one was ever convicted over the atrocity, which also injured 200 others. The dissident Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt was found responsible in a 2009 civil case. Colm Murphy, who died in 2023, was convicted of being involved in the plot but was cleared in a retrial.

Alan Turnbull, the chair of the public inquiry, said those who were watching the inquiry in person or online would be “overwhelmed and humbled” by what they would hear over the next four weeks. The inquiry has been dedicated to commemorations of those directly affected, including victims and first responders.

Summarising the witness statements of each of the victims, Paul Greaney KC spoke of the anger some felt, with one woman asking if the perpetrators of such a “despicable act” could sleep at night.

Greaney said the victims’ statements demonstrated the “mayhem, pandemonium, unfolding chaos, harrowing sounds and smells, and feeling of helplessness and terror” on the day.

Several wrote about how the bomb had shattered the optimism around the recently won peace deal.

Many spoke of the mental impact “which developed as their bodies began to heal” with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, flashbacks, sleeplessness, nightmares, loneliness, a sense of humiliation and panic attacks all emanating from the trauma. Some remain hypervigilant about open spaces to this day.

The inquiry continues.