SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS
SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS
IT COULD have been any one of us.
On Saturday we might have taken a fateful decision to make the comparatitively short journey to Omagh. We may have decided on the strength of the carnival atmosphere to remain and spend an hour or two in this traditionally busy but always welcoming town.
Fate decreed otherwise for the great majority of us.
But for twenty-eight others, comprising both natives and visitors to the County Tyrone town, there was to be no such escape from the bloody destiny mapped out for them by the murderous minority of their fellow countrymen.
No reprieve for the several hundred innocents maimed and traumatized by the weekend bomb blast. And for the bereaved families of the dead and injured no let-off from the pain and grief of today, tomorrow, and many, many years ahead.
Over the decades of terror and trauma inflicted by the men and women of violence, Donegal has largely remained unscathed in human loss terms from the tragic history endured by our neighbours just across the border.
There was the cowardly murder in Drumkeen of R.U.C. Constable Samuel McClean, gunned down without mercy while working along the roadside near his parents home.
There was the equally callous and bloody slaying of Sinn Fein councillor, Eddie Fullerton, at his home in Buncrana.
But to a great extent the troubles have by-passed this county when loss of life is taken into account.
Saturday last changed all that. Among the 28. innocent people whose lives were claimed by an action none of us can even start to comprehend, three young children had travelled from Buncrana as part of a student exchange programme.
They had travelled with fellow students from Spain - prepared to enjoy a day out before returning home to their loved ones.
On Tuesday night they made that journey home in a manner nobody could have foreseen - except perhaps those who planned and executed the chilling carnage of Omagh's darkest day.
In the bleak and stricken days that have followed, there have been few consoling signs for those who have and continue to suffer through the trauma.
We can reflect on the never ceasing work of the medical and security teams who never shirked in their efforts to ease the suffering. We can laud too the willing members of the public who courageously came forward to lend any help they could in the aftermath of the bombing -all too graphically brought home to those of us on the outside looking in via the video camera of one man at the scene
We can be encouraged by the pledges of those in authority on both sides of the border to hunt down those responsible and ensure they
will face the full rigours of the law. There will, we are promised, be no hiding places for those who carried out this bloody outrage.
But there can also be no hiding place for the anguish and agony of those who have been left mourning their dead. No running away from
the dreadful spectre and murderous consequences of the actions of those who call themselves freedom fighters.
And what of the people involved in ending the lives of the innocents?
Did the godfathers who planned this mass murder and those who carried it out return to the loving bosoms of their homes on Saturday night? Did they tuck their children up in bed and kiss them goodnight? Did they sleep the sleep of those at peace with themselves and did they rise the following day refreshed from rest and free from conscience?
Or did they even stop to consider the devastation and pain they have inflicted on fellow human beings?
And all in the name of what?
Today Buncrana buries its dead. Today the three young children, Sean McLaughlin, James Barker and Oran Doherty, should have been enjoying the final days of their school holidays.
Instead the savage killers who continue to trawl the very depths of depravity made sure that Saturday was to be their final day full stop.
A day when their families were given no time to say goodbye and too much time to keep on asking the simple heart-wrenching question -why?
IT COULD have been any one of us.
On Saturday we might have taken a fateful decision to make the comparatitively short journey to Omagh. We may have decided on the strength of the carnival atmosphere to remain and spend an hour or two in this traditionally busy but always welcoming town.
Fate decreed otherwise for the great majority of us.
But for twenty-eight others, comprising both natives and visitors to the County Tyrone town, there was to be no such escape from the bloody destiny mapped out for them by the murderous minority of their fellow countrymen.
No reprieve for the several hundred innocents maimed and traumatized by the weekend bomb blast. And for the bereaved families of the dead and injured no let-off from the pain and grief of today, tomorrow, and many, many years ahead.
Over the decades of terror and trauma inflicted by the men and women of violence, Donegal has largely remained unscathed in human loss terms from the tragic history endured by our neighbours just across the border.
There was the cowardly murder in Drumkeen of R.U.C. Constable Samuel McClean, gunned down without mercy while working along the roadside near his parents home.
There was the equally callous and bloody slaying of Sinn Fein councillor, Eddie Fullerton, at his home in Buncrana.
But to a great extent the troubles have by-passed this county when loss of life is taken into account.
Saturday last changed all that. Among the 28. innocent people whose lives were claimed by an action none of us can even start to comprehend, three young children had travelled from Buncrana as part of a student exchange programme.
They had travelled with fellow students from Spain - prepared to enjoy a day out before returning home to their loved ones.
On Tuesday night they made that journey home in a manner nobody could have foreseen - except perhaps those who planned and executed the chilling carnage of Omagh's darkest day.
In the bleak and stricken days that have followed, there have been few consoling signs for those who have and continue to suffer through the trauma.
We can reflect on the never ceasing work of the medical and security teams who never shirked in their efforts to ease the suffering. We can laud too the willing members of the public who courageously came forward to lend any help they could in the aftermath of the bombing -all too graphically brought home to those of us on the outside looking in via the video camera of one man at the scene
We can be encouraged by the pledges of those in authority on both sides of the border to hunt down those responsible and ensure they
will face the full rigours of the law. There will, we are promised, be no hiding places for those who carried out this bloody outrage.
But there can also be no hiding place for the anguish and agony of those who have been left mourning their dead. No running away from
the dreadful spectre and murderous consequences of the actions of those who call themselves freedom fighters.
And what of the people involved in ending the lives of the innocents?
Did the godfathers who planned this mass murder and those who carried it out return to the loving bosoms of their homes on Saturday night? Did they tuck their children up in bed and kiss them goodnight? Did they sleep the sleep of those at peace with themselves and did they rise the following day refreshed from rest and free from conscience?
Or did they even stop to consider the devastation and pain they have inflicted on fellow human beings?
And all in the name of what?
Today Buncrana buries its dead. Today the three young children, Sean McLaughlin, James Barker and Oran Doherty, should have been enjoying the final days of their school holidays.
Instead the savage killers who continue to trawl the very depths of depravity made sure that Saturday was to be their final day full stop.
A day when their families were given no time to say goodbye and too much time to keep on asking the simple heart-wrenching question -why?
Further Information
Publisher: DONEGAL PEOPLE'S PRESS
Ref: DP/016
Published Date: 19-Aug-98
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