FAMILIES IN MADRID TO MOURN LOVED ONES
Families in Madrid to mourn loved ones
Friends from Buncrana fly to Spain for Omagh bomb victims' service
By IAN STARRETT
THE victims of the Omagh bombing massacre are to be remembered at a poignant religious ceremony in Spain tonight.
Family and friends from Buncrana and Madrid, who were united in joy for a decade as students from the Spanish capital attended summertime language schools in the Donegal resort, were together again this time in grief in the aftermath of the Tyrone atrocity.
Two of the Spaniards, a schoolboy and a leader, who were in this year's two-dozen strong party staying in Buncrana, were killed in the no-warning Real IRA blast that ripped Omagh apart on August 15.
Young people from Spain had been coming to Buncrana for 10 years to learn English, staying with host families in the North West holiday region.
Two Spaniards who died, along with three Buncrana friends, had gone on a bus trip to the Ulster American Folk Park before travelling on to Omagh to watch the town's peace carnival.
Murdered in the blast were Buncrana schoolboys Oran Doherty, eight, James Barker, 12, and Sean McLaughlin, 11, and their Spanish friends, 12-year-old Fernando Blasco and 23-year-old group leader Rocio Abad.
The first foreign tourists to be killed in a terrorist bombing in Northern Ireland, the bodies of the Spanish dead were flown home from RAF Aldergrove for their funerals in Madrid.
Other injured Spanish children were flown home by air ambulance after treatment in Ulster hospitals. The remainder of the uninjured Spanish children returned home later.
Paula Helguero, Spanish co-ordinator of the annual visits to the Donegal resort, has already promised that she will return to the lnishowen town with more students next year, but tonight she too will join in remembering the dead from Spain, Buncrana and Omagh.
Families and friends from Buncrana and Madrid will attend a special memorial Mass in Madrid this evening.
Sinead McLaughlin, Buncrana co-ordinator of the exchange visits, said before flying out to Madrid yesterday: "I think it is very important being from Buncrana that I can share my grief with the people from Madrid.
"We have been in this together and I think that it's important that we can share our sorrow together.
"For me, personally, that is a very important step, even in the whole healing process.
"It will be good to meet up with my Spanish friends again and to bring messages of support from the people of Buncrana to the people in Madrid."
Ms McLaughlin said she hoped the exchange visits would continue in "I think it would be a shame that an act of violence could destroy the links that have been forged over the last 10 years."
Buncrana Urban Council vice-chairman Jim Sheridan said yesterday that they wanted the people of Madrid to know that their grief and loss hadn't been forgotten.
"We don't intend to forget the Spanish people who come here every summer."
Mr Sheridan added: "I believe that our contact and our going there will strengthen the spirit of the people in Spain, that we still have their children in our minds and that we very much want to support them in their time of grief and sadness."
Also flying out to Madrid yesterday was Mary Gallagher, host of 12-year-old Fernando Blasco, who was killed in the explosion.
Omagh-born Buncrana priest the Rev Shane Bradley said Mary would be visiting Fernando's parents and his grave.
"It was to her in a sense like the loss of a member of her own family," said Fr Bradley.
Friends from Buncrana fly to Spain for Omagh bomb victims' service
By IAN STARRETT
THE victims of the Omagh bombing massacre are to be remembered at a poignant religious ceremony in Spain tonight.
Family and friends from Buncrana and Madrid, who were united in joy for a decade as students from the Spanish capital attended summertime language schools in the Donegal resort, were together again this time in grief in the aftermath of the Tyrone atrocity.
Two of the Spaniards, a schoolboy and a leader, who were in this year's two-dozen strong party staying in Buncrana, were killed in the no-warning Real IRA blast that ripped Omagh apart on August 15.
Young people from Spain had been coming to Buncrana for 10 years to learn English, staying with host families in the North West holiday region.
Two Spaniards who died, along with three Buncrana friends, had gone on a bus trip to the Ulster American Folk Park before travelling on to Omagh to watch the town's peace carnival.
Murdered in the blast were Buncrana schoolboys Oran Doherty, eight, James Barker, 12, and Sean McLaughlin, 11, and their Spanish friends, 12-year-old Fernando Blasco and 23-year-old group leader Rocio Abad.
The first foreign tourists to be killed in a terrorist bombing in Northern Ireland, the bodies of the Spanish dead were flown home from RAF Aldergrove for their funerals in Madrid.
Other injured Spanish children were flown home by air ambulance after treatment in Ulster hospitals. The remainder of the uninjured Spanish children returned home later.
Paula Helguero, Spanish co-ordinator of the annual visits to the Donegal resort, has already promised that she will return to the lnishowen town with more students next year, but tonight she too will join in remembering the dead from Spain, Buncrana and Omagh.
Families and friends from Buncrana and Madrid will attend a special memorial Mass in Madrid this evening.
Sinead McLaughlin, Buncrana co-ordinator of the exchange visits, said before flying out to Madrid yesterday: "I think it is very important being from Buncrana that I can share my grief with the people from Madrid.
"We have been in this together and I think that it's important that we can share our sorrow together.
"For me, personally, that is a very important step, even in the whole healing process.
"It will be good to meet up with my Spanish friends again and to bring messages of support from the people of Buncrana to the people in Madrid."
Ms McLaughlin said she hoped the exchange visits would continue in "I think it would be a shame that an act of violence could destroy the links that have been forged over the last 10 years."
Buncrana Urban Council vice-chairman Jim Sheridan said yesterday that they wanted the people of Madrid to know that their grief and loss hadn't been forgotten.
"We don't intend to forget the Spanish people who come here every summer."
Mr Sheridan added: "I believe that our contact and our going there will strengthen the spirit of the people in Spain, that we still have their children in our minds and that we very much want to support them in their time of grief and sadness."
Also flying out to Madrid yesterday was Mary Gallagher, host of 12-year-old Fernando Blasco, who was killed in the explosion.
Omagh-born Buncrana priest the Rev Shane Bradley said Mary would be visiting Fernando's parents and his grave.
"It was to her in a sense like the loss of a member of her own family," said Fr Bradley.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/345
Published Date: 16-Oct-98
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