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To: Wizzer who wrote (16027)	8/17/1998 8:07:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 116764

And whose fault is this? Omagh counts victims of Ulster's worst slaughter By Toby Harnden, David Graves and Judith Woods in Omagh NINE children and 14 women were among 28 people confirmed dead last night as the enormity of the slaughter caused by the republican dissident terrorists who car-bombed Omagh became clear. It was the worst atrocity in nearly 30 years of the Troubles. <Picture> Investigators at the site of Saturday's bomb blast in Omagh Ronnie Flanagan, the RUC chief constable, said that the bombers' misleading coded warning, which led to hundreds of shoppers being ushered into the path of the blast, was intended to maximise casualties. Only four months after Unionists, nationalists, loyalists and republicans publicly backed the Stormont agreement, the prospects of a peaceful future for Northern Ireland seemed as far away as ever. The bomb had killed Roman Catholics and Protestants alike. Eleven of the 103 people detained in hospital were described as "critical" and it was feared that the number of dead could rise. A Catholic grandmother, Mary Grimes, 65, her daughter, Avril Monaghan, 30, who was expecting twins, and Mrs Monaghan's 18-month-old daughter Maura were among those killed. They died with six other shoppers in an outfitters' store next to where the bomb was left. <Picture> Brenda Logue's mother and brother grieve for the 17-year-old Many of the women and children caught in the blast had been buying school uniforms for the autumn term. A Spanish boy, aged 12, on a school exchange scheme and his three young friends from Co Donegal in the Irish Republic were also among the dead, as were Brenda Logue, 17, who played for a local Gaelic football team, and Philomena Skelton, 39, who had four children. Relatives of those who had not been accounted for spent the day waiting at the town's leisure centre for news. Many of those injured, including a number of children, lost limbs. A woman was blinded in one eye and had a leg and an arm blown off. A 17-year-old pregnant girl lost both legs. Lindsay Hall, whose son Alastair lost a leg, wept as he produced his son's treasured rugby ball and said: "He's only 12, I'm 57 - why couldn't it have happened to me? Poor Ali loved his rugby but he'll will never be able to play again." Micky Gallagher kept recounting the kind words of a badly injured Spanish boy who tried to reassure him that his wife would be all right as they lay next to each other in a helicopter. His wife, he said, was covered from head to foot in shrapnel wounds and in terrible pain. But such was the horror and scale of the atrocity that Mr Gallagher considered himself "lucky". <Picture> Local Catholics pray during a service at St Joseph's church in Omagh Tony Blair broke off his French holiday to fly to Belfast to meet Bertie Ahern, the Irish premier, and security officials. The Prime Minister promised afterwards that the "criminals and psychopaths" responsible would be brought to justice. Mr Blair said that everyone who had worked for the Stormont agreement would be angered by the bombing, but he vowed that it would not stop the search for a settlement. He said: "I can feel that people must feel so angry and despairing. I felt like that myself and I've worked so hard for it. I believe in it so much and care about the people. We have got to carry on searching for this. We can't let this rump group wreck what we have built and worked for." Mr Ahern said that the terrorists would be "crushed" and that no option open to the Irish government would be ignored. <Picture> A floral tribute: Why? No organisation had claimed responsibility for the atrocity last night, but the British and Irish governments agreed that the "Real IRA", which broke from the Provisionals last October, was responsible. Mr Flanagan is due to meet Pat Byrne, his Irish counterpart, today to discuss what form the security response should take. Internment without trial was among the measures being contemplated by the Irish government. Mr Blair said the meeting between Mr Flanagan and Mr Byrne was "not routine" and indicated that action would result. The bombing drew unprecedented denunciation from Sinn Fein's leaders, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, and appeals to loyalist paramilitaries not to be provoked into breaching their ceasefires. John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mary McAleese, the Irish president, Seamus Mallon, Ulster's Second Minister, and Mr Adams were among those who visited the scene of the devastation.