HEAD TEACHER REMEMBERS TRAGIC PUPILS
Head teacher remembers tragic pupils
By Michael O'Toole
ALAN Radford should not have been able to sleep last night.
The lively teenager should have been waiting anxiously at his front door this morning as the postman put the most important letter of his young life through the letter box.
The 17-year-old should have, with fingers trembling, opened that slim envelope with the results of his GCSEs, which would have had a massive effect on his future life.
But, like four other one- time and present pupils of Omagh High School, Alan Radford has no future, his life snuffed out by Saturday's bomb attack in the town.
Yesterday, school principal Bill Harper, was faced with one of the most harrowing decisions of his life, should he post the GCSE results to Alan's grief-stricken parents?
Fighting back the tears, the headmaster lamented: "What do you do in a situation like this there are no manuals for this."
Mr Harper's grimace of sorrow is temporarily replaced with a fond smile as he remembers a lively student, always chatting to people.
He says: "Alan was a normal young lad.
"He occasionally got into trouble but so did I at that age and so did everyone else.
"He was pleasant, outgoing and always very helpful.
"You always saw him chatting to people around the school he was very popular."
The school, with 450 pupils, was simply devastated by the Omagh bomb horror.
Along with Alan, the school also lost another current pupil, Joanne Wilson.
Joanne (15) was killed while working in an Oxfam charity shop, with her best friend, Samantha McFarland (17) who left the school last year.
The two other former pupils to die were Esther Gibson (36) and Debra Cartwright (20).
Debra, he said, was a "tall, striking" pupil who spent much of her time working on cross-community projects while at the school.
Joanne was also keenly interested in charity work a devotion which would lead to her death.
Reading a letter he received from Samantha after she left last year was almost too much for him.
It said: "Just a small note to say thank you to you and your staff for my enjoyable time at Omagh High School.
"I am pleased with my GCSE results."
By Michael O'Toole
ALAN Radford should not have been able to sleep last night.
The lively teenager should have been waiting anxiously at his front door this morning as the postman put the most important letter of his young life through the letter box.
The 17-year-old should have, with fingers trembling, opened that slim envelope with the results of his GCSEs, which would have had a massive effect on his future life.
But, like four other one- time and present pupils of Omagh High School, Alan Radford has no future, his life snuffed out by Saturday's bomb attack in the town.
Yesterday, school principal Bill Harper, was faced with one of the most harrowing decisions of his life, should he post the GCSE results to Alan's grief-stricken parents?
Fighting back the tears, the headmaster lamented: "What do you do in a situation like this there are no manuals for this."
Mr Harper's grimace of sorrow is temporarily replaced with a fond smile as he remembers a lively student, always chatting to people.
He says: "Alan was a normal young lad.
"He occasionally got into trouble but so did I at that age and so did everyone else.
"He was pleasant, outgoing and always very helpful.
"You always saw him chatting to people around the school he was very popular."
The school, with 450 pupils, was simply devastated by the Omagh bomb horror.
Along with Alan, the school also lost another current pupil, Joanne Wilson.
Joanne (15) was killed while working in an Oxfam charity shop, with her best friend, Samantha McFarland (17) who left the school last year.
The two other former pupils to die were Esther Gibson (36) and Debra Cartwright (20).
Debra, he said, was a "tall, striking" pupil who spent much of her time working on cross-community projects while at the school.
Joanne was also keenly interested in charity work a devotion which would lead to her death.
Reading a letter he received from Samantha after she left last year was almost too much for him.
It said: "Just a small note to say thank you to you and your staff for my enjoyable time at Omagh High School.
"I am pleased with my GCSE results."
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0675
Published Date: 18-Aug-98
Related Images
There have been no images archived for this article.