DIFFICULT DAY AS VICTIMS REMEMBERED
Difficult day as victims remembered
By IAN STARRETT
BUNCRANA Primary School is to permanently remember the three local schoolchildren, their Spanish friends and the foreign teacher who were all killed in the Omagh bomb tragedy.
In the foyer of the school a large memorial picture of Buncrana victims Oran Doherty, Sean McLaughlin and James Barker, their 12-year-old Spanish friend Fernando Blasco and 23-year-old Spanish group trader Rocio Abad will be hung in a prominent place as a permanent, reminder of their lives.
Vice-principal Jimmy McBride said yesterday's return to school for local children who lost friends in the atrocity was a difficult day for everyone.
He told schoolmates that eight-year-old Oran - who was due to start yesterday in Mr McBride's class wouldn't be coming to school and prayers were then said for all of the Omagh dead and wounded.
He said that they would try to get the children fully involved in the term's work as quickly as possible. "We will start off as best we can and if I find problems that I can't deal with there is help available to us."
"We have already been counselled ourselves. We had two sessions with Department of Education counsellors, psychiatrists and psychologists from Dublin and with the local North West Health Board counsellors."
He said they planned to put up in the hallway a memorial picture of the five so that it would remind all the children what happened.
"It will be there for ever for them. They will be very much in our thoughts and, of course, the two other children who are still traumatised and ill," Mr McBride added.
There were empty desks yesterday too at the secondary school in Buncrana which 12-year-old Sean McLaughlin attended and at Foyle and Londonderry College where James Barker, also 12, was being educated.
As Buncrana Garda investigations continued yesterday, following the series of malicious phone calls to the bereaved Doherty and McLaughlin families from a man asking to speak to the murdered children before hanging up. local curate the Rev Shane Bradley said that it was causing added stress to the families.
Garda say they are taking the calls seriously and they have appealed to the public to help them catch the anonymous caller.
By IAN STARRETT
BUNCRANA Primary School is to permanently remember the three local schoolchildren, their Spanish friends and the foreign teacher who were all killed in the Omagh bomb tragedy.
In the foyer of the school a large memorial picture of Buncrana victims Oran Doherty, Sean McLaughlin and James Barker, their 12-year-old Spanish friend Fernando Blasco and 23-year-old Spanish group trader Rocio Abad will be hung in a prominent place as a permanent, reminder of their lives.
Vice-principal Jimmy McBride said yesterday's return to school for local children who lost friends in the atrocity was a difficult day for everyone.
He told schoolmates that eight-year-old Oran - who was due to start yesterday in Mr McBride's class wouldn't be coming to school and prayers were then said for all of the Omagh dead and wounded.
He said that they would try to get the children fully involved in the term's work as quickly as possible. "We will start off as best we can and if I find problems that I can't deal with there is help available to us."
"We have already been counselled ourselves. We had two sessions with Department of Education counsellors, psychiatrists and psychologists from Dublin and with the local North West Health Board counsellors."
He said they planned to put up in the hallway a memorial picture of the five so that it would remind all the children what happened.
"It will be there for ever for them. They will be very much in our thoughts and, of course, the two other children who are still traumatised and ill," Mr McBride added.
There were empty desks yesterday too at the secondary school in Buncrana which 12-year-old Sean McLaughlin attended and at Foyle and Londonderry College where James Barker, also 12, was being educated.
As Buncrana Garda investigations continued yesterday, following the series of malicious phone calls to the bereaved Doherty and McLaughlin families from a man asking to speak to the murdered children before hanging up. local curate the Rev Shane Bradley said that it was causing added stress to the families.
Garda say they are taking the calls seriously and they have appealed to the public to help them catch the anonymous caller.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/259
Published Date: 02-Sep-98
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