WE KNOW WHO MADE THE BOMB SAYS AHERN
We know who made the bomb says Ahern
By RITA O'REILLY
TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern said yesterday that the Omagh bomb was probably made by the same engineer behind the device detonated in Banbridge and behind other recent bombings linked to the group now being "hunted'' by gardai.
Mr Ahern said he was confident the bombers would be caught and dubbed them "the enemies of all the Irish people, of whatever part of the island, whatever religion''.
He said they had been "out to get'' the peace process and every time it was seen to make progress, "they thought of another bomb''.
A minute's silence at 3.10pm today (Sat) was "the least that we can do'', the Taoiseach said.
Mr Ahern will attend the Ceremony of Reflection for the dead and injured in Omagh this afternoon, after which he will visit the remaining injured in hospital. Later he meets First Minister, David Trimble and Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon, for talks.
He was speaking to Joe Duffy on RTE's Liveline programme yesterday at the close of a week of unprecedented radio and television coverage of the Omagh atrocity in both Ireland and Britain.
Mr Ahern revealed that his brother Maurice, whose wife used to work in Omagh Hospital, rang him shortly after the bombing with the first news of fatalities.
He had immediately contacted civil servants in the Anglo-Irish secretariat. Senior officials in Justice, Foreign Affairs and the Department of the Taoiseach met in his Drumcondra office within an hour.
The Garda had done "a super job'' in thwarting the bombers on nine occasions but he had always felt that "somewhere along the line they'd get through'', though he had hoped it would not be with such devastating effect.
"All year, since Gardai found the tonne and a half of explosives in Howth, we knew we were up against difficult and dangerous people'', he said.
"And all the time the intelligence was that they were organising around the country and they were trying to pull away people from other outfits.''
Forensic examination of the Omagh bomb was still ongoing but it was his understanding that "the bomb that was made last week it was the same hand, the same bomb-maker that made the one the previous time in Banbridge and a few more as well''.
A similar tragedy could have happened in any of those bombings also, he pointed out.
Mr Ahern quashed the notion that "Omagh went wrong''.
"There was about nine others that we were lucky enough that we got,'' he said, reminding listeners that gardai had intercepted two cars containing 940lbs of bomb material on May 23, the day counting was being completed in the peace referendum.
He said 20 to 30 dissident republicans had been under surveillance all summer. Fourteen dissidents were already in prison and one, Ronan McLoughlin, was shot dead by gardai in May, while a number of others alleged to be involved with dissidents were being brought before the courts in London.
The Taoiseach spoke of how his daughters had cried watching television footage of Omagh. His eldest daughter, Georgina, had asked: "Didn't we think this was all over?'', to which he had replied: "We hoped it was all over, but we did know that there was an evil group out there.''
He pointed out that as the referendum results were being announced on May 23 in Dublin Castle, he had used that occasion "to warn those people who were going against the wishes of the Irish people to stop''.
"I was very conscious then because I knew from intelligence that this lot were about and that they just didn't want us to have the Agreement,'' he said.
He continued: "As complicated as the Good Friday Agreement is, at least it takes into account the views and the concerns of all the various players.''
By RITA O'REILLY
TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern said yesterday that the Omagh bomb was probably made by the same engineer behind the device detonated in Banbridge and behind other recent bombings linked to the group now being "hunted'' by gardai.
Mr Ahern said he was confident the bombers would be caught and dubbed them "the enemies of all the Irish people, of whatever part of the island, whatever religion''.
He said they had been "out to get'' the peace process and every time it was seen to make progress, "they thought of another bomb''.
A minute's silence at 3.10pm today (Sat) was "the least that we can do'', the Taoiseach said.
Mr Ahern will attend the Ceremony of Reflection for the dead and injured in Omagh this afternoon, after which he will visit the remaining injured in hospital. Later he meets First Minister, David Trimble and Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon, for talks.
He was speaking to Joe Duffy on RTE's Liveline programme yesterday at the close of a week of unprecedented radio and television coverage of the Omagh atrocity in both Ireland and Britain.
Mr Ahern revealed that his brother Maurice, whose wife used to work in Omagh Hospital, rang him shortly after the bombing with the first news of fatalities.
He had immediately contacted civil servants in the Anglo-Irish secretariat. Senior officials in Justice, Foreign Affairs and the Department of the Taoiseach met in his Drumcondra office within an hour.
The Garda had done "a super job'' in thwarting the bombers on nine occasions but he had always felt that "somewhere along the line they'd get through'', though he had hoped it would not be with such devastating effect.
"All year, since Gardai found the tonne and a half of explosives in Howth, we knew we were up against difficult and dangerous people'', he said.
"And all the time the intelligence was that they were organising around the country and they were trying to pull away people from other outfits.''
Forensic examination of the Omagh bomb was still ongoing but it was his understanding that "the bomb that was made last week it was the same hand, the same bomb-maker that made the one the previous time in Banbridge and a few more as well''.
A similar tragedy could have happened in any of those bombings also, he pointed out.
Mr Ahern quashed the notion that "Omagh went wrong''.
"There was about nine others that we were lucky enough that we got,'' he said, reminding listeners that gardai had intercepted two cars containing 940lbs of bomb material on May 23, the day counting was being completed in the peace referendum.
He said 20 to 30 dissident republicans had been under surveillance all summer. Fourteen dissidents were already in prison and one, Ronan McLoughlin, was shot dead by gardai in May, while a number of others alleged to be involved with dissidents were being brought before the courts in London.
The Taoiseach spoke of how his daughters had cried watching television footage of Omagh. His eldest daughter, Georgina, had asked: "Didn't we think this was all over?'', to which he had replied: "We hoped it was all over, but we did know that there was an evil group out there.''
He pointed out that as the referendum results were being announced on May 23 in Dublin Castle, he had used that occasion "to warn those people who were going against the wishes of the Irish people to stop''.
"I was very conscious then because I knew from intelligence that this lot were about and that they just didn't want us to have the Agreement,'' he said.
He continued: "As complicated as the Good Friday Agreement is, at least it takes into account the views and the concerns of all the various players.''
Further Information
Publisher: IRISH INDEPENDENT
Ref: II/090
Published Date: 22-Aug-98
Related Images
There have been no images archived for this article.