BUNCRANA MOTHER RECALLS THE DAY SHE LOST HER SON
Buncrana mother recalls the day she lost her son
Buncrana woman Bernie Doherty lays flowers at the grave of her son Oran every week.
Eight-year-old Oran, one of the 29 victims of the Omagh bombing, was part of a youth group excursion to the town. He died along with twelve-year-olds Sean McLaughlin and James Barker, both from Buncrana, and two Spaniards who were part of an exchange visit to the town.
Bernie's second eldest son had been on a excursion to the Ulster-American folk park outside Omagh. The group then visited the town before they were due to return home.
The Buncrana women had expected to see her son that night but the next time she saw him was on a slab in a temporary mortuary in Omagh, she recently told the Belfast Telegraph newspaper.
"I wasn't so happy about him going because he was only eight," she said.
"I watched him until he went out of sight over the hill. Four local boys and one of the Spanish students going down the road and that was it, the last I saw him alive."
She was in her living room that afternoon when two of Oran's cousins came running up the path to the house.
"I just knew they were there to tell me something about the trip, I just knew," she said.
With no word available from Omagh due to busy phone lines Oran's father Mickey decided to drive there along with the families of other missing children.
"At midnight my husband called home. He was up at the leisure centre and said every now and again people were called to come up. There was. a list of missing people and gradually it was getting smaller as people were getting found but there was still no word about Oran and Sean.
"Mickey said: 'Don't worry I'll bring the wee man home, I'll find him'."
At 7am the next morning she saw people hugging at the McLaughlin's home.
"Someone came up and said: 'Wee Sean's dead'. At that exact minute the phone rang. It was Mickey. He, said, 'Have you heard the news?' I said, yes, wee Sean's dead,' and he said, 'Yes and Oran's dead too'.
"I just fired the phone to the ground."
Buncrana woman Bernie Doherty lays flowers at the grave of her son Oran every week.
Eight-year-old Oran, one of the 29 victims of the Omagh bombing, was part of a youth group excursion to the town. He died along with twelve-year-olds Sean McLaughlin and James Barker, both from Buncrana, and two Spaniards who were part of an exchange visit to the town.
Bernie's second eldest son had been on a excursion to the Ulster-American folk park outside Omagh. The group then visited the town before they were due to return home.
The Buncrana women had expected to see her son that night but the next time she saw him was on a slab in a temporary mortuary in Omagh, she recently told the Belfast Telegraph newspaper.
"I wasn't so happy about him going because he was only eight," she said.
"I watched him until he went out of sight over the hill. Four local boys and one of the Spanish students going down the road and that was it, the last I saw him alive."
She was in her living room that afternoon when two of Oran's cousins came running up the path to the house.
"I just knew they were there to tell me something about the trip, I just knew," she said.
With no word available from Omagh due to busy phone lines Oran's father Mickey decided to drive there along with the families of other missing children.
"At midnight my husband called home. He was up at the leisure centre and said every now and again people were called to come up. There was. a list of missing people and gradually it was getting smaller as people were getting found but there was still no word about Oran and Sean.
"Mickey said: 'Don't worry I'll bring the wee man home, I'll find him'."
At 7am the next morning she saw people hugging at the McLaughlin's home.
"Someone came up and said: 'Wee Sean's dead'. At that exact minute the phone rang. It was Mickey. He, said, 'Have you heard the news?' I said, yes, wee Sean's dead,' and he said, 'Yes and Oran's dead too'.
"I just fired the phone to the ground."
Further Information
Publisher: DONEGAL DEMOCRAT
Ref: DOD10An/05
Published Date: 14-Aug-08
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