CALL FOR OMAGH FUND TO BE WOUND UP
Call for Omagh Fund to be wound up
By MARY LAFFERTY
m.lafferty@newsletter.co.uk
SIX-and-a-half years after it was set up, a main fundraiser involved with the Omagh Rind has called for it to be wound up.
Chris McGale, a corporate fundraiser for the fund, has spoken out to say that the monies remaining in the charity should be distributed to the bereaved and seriously injured.
The fund was set up in the aftermath of the Omagh bomb in 1998 which claimed the lives of 29 people plus two unborn children.
With a little under half-a-million pounds remaining, trustees have come under heavy criticism for allocating monies to Government-funded bodies such as the Trauma Centre, Wave and the Tara Centre over a three-year period.
Defending this decision, spokesman for the trustees Sean O'Dywer has said that money distributed to the charities was helping local people in trouble.
He also revealed that the trust had approached the council about the possible erection of a memorial to those who had lost their lives.
As the council were not ready to accept the money immediately, Mr O'Dywer said it posed a problem for the trust which has to stay open until all monies are allocated.
"That's the only reason that we feel that we can't close down until the end of next year.
"We would have liked to have wound up the fund last year but we were advised that we really should remain in existence to account for all the money in the account."
Stanley McCombe, who lost his wife Anne in the bomb, said: "I think it's a phase of this disaster that should be wound up. Who was it set up to help initially? They should get rid of the remainder of the money now."
By MARY LAFFERTY
m.lafferty@newsletter.co.uk
SIX-and-a-half years after it was set up, a main fundraiser involved with the Omagh Rind has called for it to be wound up.
Chris McGale, a corporate fundraiser for the fund, has spoken out to say that the monies remaining in the charity should be distributed to the bereaved and seriously injured.
The fund was set up in the aftermath of the Omagh bomb in 1998 which claimed the lives of 29 people plus two unborn children.
With a little under half-a-million pounds remaining, trustees have come under heavy criticism for allocating monies to Government-funded bodies such as the Trauma Centre, Wave and the Tara Centre over a three-year period.
Defending this decision, spokesman for the trustees Sean O'Dywer has said that money distributed to the charities was helping local people in trouble.
He also revealed that the trust had approached the council about the possible erection of a memorial to those who had lost their lives.
As the council were not ready to accept the money immediately, Mr O'Dywer said it posed a problem for the trust which has to stay open until all monies are allocated.
"That's the only reason that we feel that we can't close down until the end of next year.
"We would have liked to have wound up the fund last year but we were advised that we really should remain in existence to account for all the money in the account."
Stanley McCombe, who lost his wife Anne in the bomb, said: "I think it's a phase of this disaster that should be wound up. Who was it set up to help initially? They should get rid of the remainder of the money now."
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/574
Published Date: 26-Nov-04
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