BLAST EVOKES BITTER MEMORIES FOR MARY
Blast evokes bitter memories for Mary
EIRE President Mary McAleese said that her visit to Omagh yesterday, evoked memories of when her father's pub was car bombed in Belfast more than 20 years ago.
Speaking as she surveyed the scene of the bomb devastation in the town centre Ms McAleese, Eire's first Northern Ireland-born head of state, said: "There is an almost holy silence here. People are only whispering to each other.
"Anybody parking the car yesterday with the bomb in it would have seen little shops on a very, very busy Saturday afternoon - mummies and daddies and shoppers up and down the streets. That's what they would have seen - a scene of such simple, humble innocence.
"Whoever planted that bomb, they knew exactly what they were doing. I had to say that, there is no other explanation that one can offer."
She arrived at the Omagh leisure complex just minutes after Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness had entered the building.
Earlier, she said that there was now "a posse of serial killers at loose" on the island of Ireland who should be hunted down and brought to justice.
She said she wanted to support, in anyway she could, those engaged in the extraordinary relief work and to meet some of the families and the hospital workers.
"I just want to be there in whatever way I can in order to support those ordinary people whose lives have been thrown so cruelly out of kilter."
The bombers had not been influenced by the debate within the republican movement which had led to the IRA ceasefire, she added.
She said the people responsible were a "recalcitrant, manic minority who are out of control and who are flying in the face of the express wish of all the people of this island in continuing a campaign of murder and hatred".
EIRE President Mary McAleese said that her visit to Omagh yesterday, evoked memories of when her father's pub was car bombed in Belfast more than 20 years ago.
Speaking as she surveyed the scene of the bomb devastation in the town centre Ms McAleese, Eire's first Northern Ireland-born head of state, said: "There is an almost holy silence here. People are only whispering to each other.
"Anybody parking the car yesterday with the bomb in it would have seen little shops on a very, very busy Saturday afternoon - mummies and daddies and shoppers up and down the streets. That's what they would have seen - a scene of such simple, humble innocence.
"Whoever planted that bomb, they knew exactly what they were doing. I had to say that, there is no other explanation that one can offer."
She arrived at the Omagh leisure complex just minutes after Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness had entered the building.
Earlier, she said that there was now "a posse of serial killers at loose" on the island of Ireland who should be hunted down and brought to justice.
She said she wanted to support, in anyway she could, those engaged in the extraordinary relief work and to meet some of the families and the hospital workers.
"I just want to be there in whatever way I can in order to support those ordinary people whose lives have been thrown so cruelly out of kilter."
The bombers had not been influenced by the debate within the republican movement which had led to the IRA ceasefire, she added.
She said the people responsible were a "recalcitrant, manic minority who are out of control and who are flying in the face of the express wish of all the people of this island in continuing a campaign of murder and hatred".
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/035
Published Date: 17-Aug-98
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