OMAGH ARCHIVE PRESERVES GLOBAL OUTPOURING OF EMOTION
Omagh archive preserves global outpouring of emotion
BY CAROLYN FARRAR
A new, climate-controlled room in the Omagh library headquarters is filled with boxes that are filled with emotion.
The Omagh Bomb Archive is an indexed collection of papers and documents related to the 1998 Omagh bombing, from more than 10,000 Irish and international newspaper articles that covered the story, to the original cards that lay with the nearly 3,000 floral tributes left at the site, to the more than 800 of books of condolences that were signed around the country and farther afield.
Donegal people are there too, with books from Donegal Town, Ardara, Ballybofey, Ballyliffin, Ballyshannon, lnishowen, Carrigart, Gweedore, Letterbarrow, Letterkenny, Milford, Ramelton and Rathmullan, and the signatures and sympathy of Donegal people from every corner of the county included in them.
The archive "gives an idea of the outpouring of grief and support, and I think that's very good for the local community to know," said Evelyn Johns, who has worked with the archive since it began.
There are 15,000 emails bound in binders, 52 videos and 20 patchwork quilts and cushions presented by the Northern Ireland Patchwork Guild and made from patches submitted from quilters around the world. There are other unusual contributions, like the Canadian flag from the Irish Cultural Society in Calgary that was signed with condolences by society members, or a long banner made by a school in the south that featured the fingerprints and child-like writing of dozens of students over one repeated word, "Peace."
But the archive is not a story of numbers. It is a story of people.
Evelyn has been putting the collection in order and working on the digitisation of the newspaper articles and photographs in the collection. A record of the archive is available on line at www.omagharchive.co.uk.
"It was a very spontaneous archive," Evelyn said. Some of the books of condolences are specially bound volumes, but others may be as simple as copy books that were distributed in local communities to enable people to extend their thoughts. As the days and weeks passed, more of these books arrived at the Omagh District Council offices "and they passed them on to us for preservation and safe keeping," Evelyn said. "Until you come into it and see it you don't realise how much there is."
The archive moved into its new home last autumn. Evelyn has received a number of university researchers who have come to look through the collection and people from the local community are starting to come as well, Evelyn said.
"I don't think the families will use it yet," she said. It may still be too soon, she said.
On one wall of the archive is a poster with the hand-written heading, "To the People of Omagh from your friends in California," that was presented by a member of the California Highway Patrol. There is an elaborate book produced by the Temple Street Children's Hospital filled with original children's drawings meant to inspire hope. "Isn't it lovely?" Evelyn said. "The children's work is just gorgeous."
There are boxes of Christmas cards that people sent to Omagh that first Christmas. "I have to say it was so uplifting, it really was," Evelyn said. "All those people felt a need to extend some sort of feeling."
All the pieces of the collection are kept in archive conditions. Cards and other documents are preserved in poly-folders to enable people to page through them. "The whole purpose of an archive is to be used," Evelyn said. The archive can be visited during library hours.
The Donegal books of condolences range from simple lists of names, to hand-written sentiments. Many people wrote a variation of this phrase that appeared in a book from Lifford council offices: "There are no words to express my grief." At the same time, many thousands of people felt a need to express that grief.
"An evil deed was committed here," said one writer in Ardara. "My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the bombing," wrote another. A writer in Lifford asked, "The last atrocity?" And this, from an Italian man who wrote in one of the Lifford books, "Coraggio!!''
There were many one-word comments, such as "Angry," or "Sad." A number of people asked the unanswerable question, "Why?"
In the Petals of Hope project, the flowers from the floral tributes that arrived in Omagh from around the world were used by local people to make pieces of hand-made, paper incorporating the flowers, and more than 30 framed pieces of art. Each bereaved family was presented with a piece of the art work and larger pieces were given to Omagh, Buncrana and Madrid.
Evelyn said among the hardest work in the archive was to prepare the newspaper articles for digitising, to read and re-read accounts of the bombing. "No matter how many times you did it, the hair would be standing on the back of your head," she said. And there were tears, as the stories were revisited and relived.
One of the most affecting pieces in the archive is a page from the visitors' book from the Ulster-American Folk Park on Aug. 15, 1998. Fernando Blasco Baselga, a 12-year-old Spanish student who was killed in the explosion, had visited the park before heading into town with a youth group that included Buncrana students 8-year-old Oran Doherty, Shaun McLaughlin, age 12, and James Barker, also age 12.
There, on the fifth line from the bottom of the page, Fernando signed his name and the words "Aupa Espana," which translates as "hurray Spain." There's something about that line, written by a young boy on a field trip that appears so immediate, even 10 years after his death.
Evelyn said she did not know whether Omagh would ever truly get over the bombing.
"We'll probably learn to live with it," she said. "But I think it will always be 'before' and 'after.'"
BY CAROLYN FARRAR
A new, climate-controlled room in the Omagh library headquarters is filled with boxes that are filled with emotion.
The Omagh Bomb Archive is an indexed collection of papers and documents related to the 1998 Omagh bombing, from more than 10,000 Irish and international newspaper articles that covered the story, to the original cards that lay with the nearly 3,000 floral tributes left at the site, to the more than 800 of books of condolences that were signed around the country and farther afield.
Donegal people are there too, with books from Donegal Town, Ardara, Ballybofey, Ballyliffin, Ballyshannon, lnishowen, Carrigart, Gweedore, Letterbarrow, Letterkenny, Milford, Ramelton and Rathmullan, and the signatures and sympathy of Donegal people from every corner of the county included in them.
The archive "gives an idea of the outpouring of grief and support, and I think that's very good for the local community to know," said Evelyn Johns, who has worked with the archive since it began.
There are 15,000 emails bound in binders, 52 videos and 20 patchwork quilts and cushions presented by the Northern Ireland Patchwork Guild and made from patches submitted from quilters around the world. There are other unusual contributions, like the Canadian flag from the Irish Cultural Society in Calgary that was signed with condolences by society members, or a long banner made by a school in the south that featured the fingerprints and child-like writing of dozens of students over one repeated word, "Peace."
But the archive is not a story of numbers. It is a story of people.
Evelyn has been putting the collection in order and working on the digitisation of the newspaper articles and photographs in the collection. A record of the archive is available on line at www.omagharchive.co.uk.
"It was a very spontaneous archive," Evelyn said. Some of the books of condolences are specially bound volumes, but others may be as simple as copy books that were distributed in local communities to enable people to extend their thoughts. As the days and weeks passed, more of these books arrived at the Omagh District Council offices "and they passed them on to us for preservation and safe keeping," Evelyn said. "Until you come into it and see it you don't realise how much there is."
The archive moved into its new home last autumn. Evelyn has received a number of university researchers who have come to look through the collection and people from the local community are starting to come as well, Evelyn said.
"I don't think the families will use it yet," she said. It may still be too soon, she said.
On one wall of the archive is a poster with the hand-written heading, "To the People of Omagh from your friends in California," that was presented by a member of the California Highway Patrol. There is an elaborate book produced by the Temple Street Children's Hospital filled with original children's drawings meant to inspire hope. "Isn't it lovely?" Evelyn said. "The children's work is just gorgeous."
There are boxes of Christmas cards that people sent to Omagh that first Christmas. "I have to say it was so uplifting, it really was," Evelyn said. "All those people felt a need to extend some sort of feeling."
All the pieces of the collection are kept in archive conditions. Cards and other documents are preserved in poly-folders to enable people to page through them. "The whole purpose of an archive is to be used," Evelyn said. The archive can be visited during library hours.
The Donegal books of condolences range from simple lists of names, to hand-written sentiments. Many people wrote a variation of this phrase that appeared in a book from Lifford council offices: "There are no words to express my grief." At the same time, many thousands of people felt a need to express that grief.
"An evil deed was committed here," said one writer in Ardara. "My thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the bombing," wrote another. A writer in Lifford asked, "The last atrocity?" And this, from an Italian man who wrote in one of the Lifford books, "Coraggio!!''
There were many one-word comments, such as "Angry," or "Sad." A number of people asked the unanswerable question, "Why?"
In the Petals of Hope project, the flowers from the floral tributes that arrived in Omagh from around the world were used by local people to make pieces of hand-made, paper incorporating the flowers, and more than 30 framed pieces of art. Each bereaved family was presented with a piece of the art work and larger pieces were given to Omagh, Buncrana and Madrid.
Evelyn said among the hardest work in the archive was to prepare the newspaper articles for digitising, to read and re-read accounts of the bombing. "No matter how many times you did it, the hair would be standing on the back of your head," she said. And there were tears, as the stories were revisited and relived.
One of the most affecting pieces in the archive is a page from the visitors' book from the Ulster-American Folk Park on Aug. 15, 1998. Fernando Blasco Baselga, a 12-year-old Spanish student who was killed in the explosion, had visited the park before heading into town with a youth group that included Buncrana students 8-year-old Oran Doherty, Shaun McLaughlin, age 12, and James Barker, also age 12.
There, on the fifth line from the bottom of the page, Fernando signed his name and the words "Aupa Espana," which translates as "hurray Spain." There's something about that line, written by a young boy on a field trip that appears so immediate, even 10 years after his death.
Evelyn said she did not know whether Omagh would ever truly get over the bombing.
"We'll probably learn to live with it," she said. "But I think it will always be 'before' and 'after.'"
Further Information
Publisher: DONEGAL DEMOCRAT
Ref: DOD10An/02
Published Date: 14-Aug-08
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