The UK Government has ordered an independent inquiry into the 1998 Omagh bombing. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris made a Commons statement on Thursday confirming he intends to establish the inquiry in response to a court judgment that directed the Government to establish some form of investigation.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden died in the Real IRA bombing, took the legal challenge that resulted in the judge directing the state to act. The dissident republican bomb exploded in the Co Tyrone town on August 15, 1998, killing 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
Hundreds more were injured. Mr Heaton-Harris explained that he had listened to representations of those families affected by the atrocity alongside other factors, including its independence, cost to public purse and how best to “allay wider public concern”.
