I remember this day vividly. Me, my brother Diarmaid, Ma & Da were in Galway for the day. I had cash in my pocket from a pub job I had in college and I remember it was the first time I was ever in an Eddie Rockets diner. Afterwards we went out to Salthill and then further out to Silverstrand cos the day was too nice not to go to the beach. I burn easily so after a while I sat into the car for shade and turned on 2FM. The news was just about to start and the main news was that of a bomb after exploding in Omagh. I'd never even heard of Omagh but it was a Saturday afternoon so you knew the town would have been busy what ever size is was. The first reports mentioned no deaths, only injuries. That was a relief. It was heading towards evening so we decided to head back to Roscrea. On the way home we caught a later bulletin. The newsreader sounded despondent as she read out that the death toll was now thought to be 20 plus. Ma started to cry.
Our little country has seen way more than it's far share of death but this one just seemed so cruel and callous coming so soon after the Good Friday Agreement had started giving people in the North a glimpse at a future free of violence. Two 1 year old babies dead, a pregnant woman, children, teenagers, people in their 60's, young and old, Irish and foreign, Catholics and Protestants. 21 people gone in a flash. 8 more died of injuries in the following weeks. 29 people enjoying their day. The sun on their faces as they did their shopping, talked to friends, playing on the footpath, visiting from Spain, carefree, looking forward to the arrival of their twins, thinking about what to spend their money on, loving the summer. Dead.
And for what? Because of a shower of bastards who couldn't deal with the prospect of a peace agreement. The Real IRA. A splinter group of the Provisional IRA. Themselves a spin off of the original IRA. An army co-led by a certain Michael Collins who had taken part in negotiations for the original Anglo Irish Treaty back in December of 1921 (yes i know this is simplified). The irony of it all would be lost of those apes though. Hard men capable of planting a bomb on Market street knowing who'd be passing by. Hard men who then rang in a wrong location in their warning. Men who've never been found guilty of the murders they committed that day even when they've been named in a civil trial. I hope the horror of what they did that day rots them from the inside. I hope they lie screaming in their beds at night.
Now there's a prospect of a hard border returning. If it does, that same violence will return too. The recent parade riots in Derry and Belfast show that sectarian hatred is still seething up there. Old men from both sides spewing their hate onto a younger generation who didn't even exist before the Omagh bombing. Jesus I hope it doesn't happen.
Fuck the Real IRA.
Fuck the people still spreading their hate.
Fuck the British Government for even thinking of letting this happen again and for causing it to happen in the first place.
Look at the names below.
Maura Monaghan (1)
Breda Devine (1)
Oran Doherty (8)
James Barker (12)
Seán McLaughlin (12)
Fernando Blasco Baselga (12)
Lorraine Wilson (15)
Alan Radford (16)
Samantha McFarland (17)
Brenda Logue (17)
Jolene Marlow (17)
Gareth Conway (18)
Deborah-Anne Cartwright (20)
Aidan Gallagher (21)
Julia Hughes (21)
Rocío Abad Ramos (23)
Bryan White (26)
Avril Monaghan (30)
Esther Gibson (36)
Philomena Skelton (39)
Geraldine Breslin (43)
Ann McCombe (48)
Brian McCrory (54)
Veda Short (56)
Elizabeth Rush (57)
Fred White (60)
Olive Hawkes (60)
Seán McGrath (61)
Mary Grimes (65)
If the North goes to shit again we'll be seeing a lot more names like those on lists of the death.
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