CHILDREN NARROWLY AVOID HORROR
Children narrowly avoid the horror
By Michael O'Toole
MORE than 100 children avoided being caught up in the Omagh bomb horror by just five minutes, it emerged yesterday.
And one of the organisers of the festival told yesterday how he made a desperate dash towards the park where the children were gathered to make sure they were safe.
The children, from five estates in the town, were less than 500 yards away from the centre of - and heading towards it - when it was devastated by the massive bomb.
The scene of the bomb was on the route the children, aged between six and 12, were due to make their way to a cross community festival.
If the bomb had exploded just five minutes later, the children would have been right in the centre of it - and the consequences would have been unimaginable, festival coordinator Conor Keys said yesterday.
The children were all on festival floats which would not have been able to offer any protection from the deadly shards of shrapnel and many of the youngsters would have been maimed or even killed by the explosion.
The festival, organised by the Forum in Omagh for community understanding and support, brought children from tried to bring both sides of the community together in the aftermath of the killing three months ago of local teenager Sylvia Fleming.
Organiser Conor Keys said: "There had been a number of events held after the killing of Sylvia Fleming to bring the community back together and Saturday was supposed to be the grand finale.
"Whenever I heard the bomb, I was at the back of the town and my first reaction was to get to the children as soon as possible.
"I thought some of them were sure to have be caught up in it - two of the floats, with 20 children on each of them, had to drive past the site of the bomb to get to the central site on the Killyclogher Road.
"But if the bomb had gone off five minutes later, all 100 children would have been caught up in it - that was the route they all had to take to the Killyclogher Road."
Mr Keys said the children were in good humour during the drama but they knew something was wrong.
He said: "We had coca-cola to give them, but they kept on asking why the judging wasn't taking place for the fancy dress competitions."
By Michael O'Toole
MORE than 100 children avoided being caught up in the Omagh bomb horror by just five minutes, it emerged yesterday.
And one of the organisers of the festival told yesterday how he made a desperate dash towards the park where the children were gathered to make sure they were safe.
The children, from five estates in the town, were less than 500 yards away from the centre of - and heading towards it - when it was devastated by the massive bomb.
The scene of the bomb was on the route the children, aged between six and 12, were due to make their way to a cross community festival.
If the bomb had exploded just five minutes later, the children would have been right in the centre of it - and the consequences would have been unimaginable, festival coordinator Conor Keys said yesterday.
The children were all on festival floats which would not have been able to offer any protection from the deadly shards of shrapnel and many of the youngsters would have been maimed or even killed by the explosion.
The festival, organised by the Forum in Omagh for community understanding and support, brought children from tried to bring both sides of the community together in the aftermath of the killing three months ago of local teenager Sylvia Fleming.
Organiser Conor Keys said: "There had been a number of events held after the killing of Sylvia Fleming to bring the community back together and Saturday was supposed to be the grand finale.
"Whenever I heard the bomb, I was at the back of the town and my first reaction was to get to the children as soon as possible.
"I thought some of them were sure to have be caught up in it - two of the floats, with 20 children on each of them, had to drive past the site of the bomb to get to the central site on the Killyclogher Road.
"But if the bomb had gone off five minutes later, all 100 children would have been caught up in it - that was the route they all had to take to the Killyclogher Road."
Mr Keys said the children were in good humour during the drama but they knew something was wrong.
He said: "We had coca-cola to give them, but they kept on asking why the judging wasn't taking place for the fancy dress competitions."
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0045
Published Date: 17-Aug-98
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