Irish Examiner view: Families deserve resolution in Omagh inquiry

Although it is 26 years since the bombing occurred, the horror of that event has not faded and some of the memories of the day persist still
Irish Examiner view: Families deserve resolution in Omagh inquiry

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The first public hearing of the Omagh inquiry was held yesterday, when the names of all of those killed in the bombing of the Tyrone town in 1998 were read out during proceedings. People in the hearing room stood for a minute’s silence in their memory.

The Omagh bombing claimed 29 lives, including a woman who was pregnant with twins. Families and survivors gathered at the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh for the first hearing in the inquiry, which has been set up to examine whether the atrocity could reasonably have been prevented by British authorities.

Although it is 26 years since the bombing occurred, the horror of that event has not faded and some of the memories of the day persist still. Take the photograph which surfaced afterwards showing a Spanish tourist in Omagh, a small child on his shoulders, standing next to an innocuous-looking red car: Not long after the photograph was taken, the bomb — which was in that red car — exploded.

The wider context in which the atrocity occurred should not be forgotten either. In April 1998, the Good Friday Agreement was finalised and voters supported that deal in referendums held in the North and the Republic in May 1998.

The bombing occurred in August that year and was widely seen as a challenge to the peace which had been hard-earned earlier that year. The widespread revulsion and unanimous condemnation of the bombing showed there was no appetite for a return to the conflict of previous decades.

Over a quarter of a century later, those who lost family members and loved ones in the bombing now deserve resolution.

Questions have been raised about the possibility that the British state might have done more to prevent the tragedy, questions which deserve to be answered in full at the inquiry.

It may be justice deferred, but we have seen the emotional power of closure, however late it comes. The recent Stardust inquest shows the restorative power of such resolution, even if it comes years after the the events concerned.

Get ready for cyber threats

The massive logistical challenges facing the organisers of the Olympic Games continue. In recent days, for instance, heavy rain in Paris over the weekend meant high levels of E coli in the Seine — and that, in turn, has led to triathlon training planned for the river being cancelled.

However, the organisers have had to contend with other problems in the form of outright sabotage. Fires were set last weekend at various conduit points on the French rail network, which affected train services.

More recently, fibre-optic lines were deliberately cut in France in several regions, which affected the broadband service offered by a number of major French telecommunications providers.

Is the latter a more significant threat than interfering with the rail service? Modern society’s dependence on internet services is almost total — we learned from the recent CrowdStrike outage how different industries can be compromised if one element of the technological system breaks down.

Broadcaster Sky News and airline companies were particularly affected by the outage, and some IT experts have claimed it could be weeks before the global technology infrastructure fully recovers.

Challenges to technology must also be seen in relation to last week’s Defence Policy Review 2024, which identified hybrid threats — physical and cyberattacks alike — to Ireland’s infrastructure and democratic institutions as a particular concern.

The report stated: “Ireland is increasingly susceptible to threats such as cyberattacks, espionage, subversion of authority, and attacks on critical infrastructure.” 

This is in part due to our standing as both a global technology centre and as a geographic hub for data centres and internet cables: In other words, our success has made us a target.

We may be unlikely to host the Olympic Games in Ireland any time soon, but we can still learn from the French experience in recent days.

The attacks we are seeing on vital infrastructure should serve as a warning for us to invest in defence and to be proactive in safeguarding our own infrastructure.

Turbulent times

Readers with long memories may recall the controversy which surrounded the release of the movie Michael Collins back in 1996.

In retrospect, it was hardly a shock that Neil Jordan’s film was the subject of much debate, given its focus on such a turbulent period in Irish history.

Will that controversy be left in the shade, however, by a new film which has been flagged in the media?

Saipan is an account of the run-up to the World Cup in 2002, when Ireland star Roy Keane was sent home as his side prepared for the tournament, and is due to be released next summer.

The film will star Cork actor Éanna Hardwicke as Keane with two-time Oscar nominee and Alan Partridge creator Steve Coogan as Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy; it will be directed by Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa.

This is not the first time the events on Saipan have been dramatised — that honour belongs to the musical I, Keano — while Keane himself has forged a new public persona as an affable curmudgeon on a variety of media platforms.

It remains to be seen if Saipan sparks the same level of controversy as Michael Collins did.

After all, the 1996 movie focused on a charismatic Cork native at the centre of a bitter debate which divided a nation.

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