PEACE A LONG WAY OFF SAYS VICTIM'S MUM
Peace a long way off says victim's mum
Families dreading Omagh anniversary
DONNA-Maria Barker, who lost her son in the Real IRA bombing in Omagh last August, said yesterday that it will be a long time before there is peace in Ireland.
Her 12-year-old son died in Northern Ireland's worst terrorist atrocity alongside two other Buncrana children Oran Doherty and Shaun McLaughlin, as well as a Spanish student and youth leader who had been staying in the Donegal resort.
They had gone on a day trip to the Ulster-American Folk Park and then went into Omagh to shop for souvenirs.
Looking back on it yesterday - almost one year on - Mrs Barker said: "I am very, very angry and enraged about it all. How have these people got the right to take my son's life? They don't have the right."
"I just can't wait for the day when we find these people and put them behind bars. Maybe then can I rest but until then my life is a living hell, thinking that these people are still walking the streets and can do it again and again and again and maybe take other people's lives.
"I wouldn't wish this, what I'm going through, on my worst enemy. I really wouldn't.
"I feel my son has died in vain, although everybody said that Omagh was the turning point. I feel that if James had died for peace I maybe could accept it. I can't see no peace for this country...for a long, long time," she said in a BBC interview.
Mrs Barker, whose son James would have celebrated his 13th birthday last week, said that it had been a day of few words and many tears.
The Barker family had moved from their home in Surrey to Buncrana to search of a better way of life for James, his brother Oliver-Tristan, 4, and sisters Estella, 15, and Erin-Esther, 20.
Bernie Doherty, who lost her eight-year-old son Oran, said: "It has been a long hard road so far. It seems like only yesterday that he was here alive, full of life and fun. To think that he's just never going to be here again - it's hard."
Next month she is due to give birth to another child but she thinks of Oran first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
"He would have been the first up to see me in the hospital and he would have had to get up to bring me home from the hospital. That is going to be hard. I'm going to really miss him then."
Patricia McLaughlin, mother of 12-year-old Shaun, who was also killed by the bomb, said: "I just wish it was over and done with."
Buncrana priest the Rev Shane Bradley said yesterday that the people of Buncrana were heartened to see the Spanish group return this year for their annual stay, to learn to speak English. He described their decision as "courageous" but said the group wanted the visit to remain private.
Ceremonies of remembrance will begin in Buncrana on Saturday with a civic reception being held for representatives from Omagh, followed by the laying of a single wreath in the graveyard at Cockhill, where the schoolboys are buried side by side.
On Saturday night there will be a vigil for peace at St Mary's Oratory, Buncrana.
On Sunday a special Service of Remembrance will be held in Buncrana's Main Street.
A spokesman for the organisers said yesterday that the families and friends of James Barker, Shaun McLaughlin, Oran Doherty, Fernando Blasco Baselga and Rocio Abad Ramos would also be holding a number of private commemorations.
Families dreading Omagh anniversary
DONNA-Maria Barker, who lost her son in the Real IRA bombing in Omagh last August, said yesterday that it will be a long time before there is peace in Ireland.
Her 12-year-old son died in Northern Ireland's worst terrorist atrocity alongside two other Buncrana children Oran Doherty and Shaun McLaughlin, as well as a Spanish student and youth leader who had been staying in the Donegal resort.
They had gone on a day trip to the Ulster-American Folk Park and then went into Omagh to shop for souvenirs.
Looking back on it yesterday - almost one year on - Mrs Barker said: "I am very, very angry and enraged about it all. How have these people got the right to take my son's life? They don't have the right."
"I just can't wait for the day when we find these people and put them behind bars. Maybe then can I rest but until then my life is a living hell, thinking that these people are still walking the streets and can do it again and again and again and maybe take other people's lives.
"I wouldn't wish this, what I'm going through, on my worst enemy. I really wouldn't.
"I feel my son has died in vain, although everybody said that Omagh was the turning point. I feel that if James had died for peace I maybe could accept it. I can't see no peace for this country...for a long, long time," she said in a BBC interview.
Mrs Barker, whose son James would have celebrated his 13th birthday last week, said that it had been a day of few words and many tears.
The Barker family had moved from their home in Surrey to Buncrana to search of a better way of life for James, his brother Oliver-Tristan, 4, and sisters Estella, 15, and Erin-Esther, 20.
Bernie Doherty, who lost her eight-year-old son Oran, said: "It has been a long hard road so far. It seems like only yesterday that he was here alive, full of life and fun. To think that he's just never going to be here again - it's hard."
Next month she is due to give birth to another child but she thinks of Oran first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
"He would have been the first up to see me in the hospital and he would have had to get up to bring me home from the hospital. That is going to be hard. I'm going to really miss him then."
Patricia McLaughlin, mother of 12-year-old Shaun, who was also killed by the bomb, said: "I just wish it was over and done with."
Buncrana priest the Rev Shane Bradley said yesterday that the people of Buncrana were heartened to see the Spanish group return this year for their annual stay, to learn to speak English. He described their decision as "courageous" but said the group wanted the visit to remain private.
Ceremonies of remembrance will begin in Buncrana on Saturday with a civic reception being held for representatives from Omagh, followed by the laying of a single wreath in the graveyard at Cockhill, where the schoolboys are buried side by side.
On Saturday night there will be a vigil for peace at St Mary's Oratory, Buncrana.
On Sunday a special Service of Remembrance will be held in Buncrana's Main Street.
A spokesman for the organisers said yesterday that the families and friends of James Barker, Shaun McLaughlin, Oran Doherty, Fernando Blasco Baselga and Rocio Abad Ramos would also be holding a number of private commemorations.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/229
Published Date: 11-Aug-99
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