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Contest to design Omagh bomb memorial

A MAJOR public art design competition has been launched to provide a permanent memorial to those killed in the 1998 Omagh bomb.
It is expected that the £240,000 memorial will be completed in advance of the 10th anniversary of the atrocity, on August 15 next year.
The car bomb at Market Street in the town claimed the lives of 29 people and unborn twins.
Daniel McSorley, chairman of the organising Omagh Memorial working group, said: "A detailed design brief has been drawn up which sets out the context of the competition and conditions."
Short-listed proposals will be displayed in Omagh during July.
Mr McSorley said the working group is ever-mindful of the needs of the bereaved - including families in Buncrana and Madrid - as well as those injured or traumatised, people who cared for the injured and bereaved and those who joined actively in the task of reconstructing the community.
They also acknowledged the reaction to the atrocity of people throughout Northern Ireland, the Republic and internationally.
However, justice campaigner Michael Gallagher, chairman of Omagh Support and Self Help Group, told the News Letter: "Our main concern is that the piece of art work to mark the bomb will state exactly what happened.
"It should note the facts, which are that the Real IRA detonated the bomb, that the attack was carried out by dissident republicans, that 31 people died from three nations and that hundreds were injured.
"That is the most important aspect - that the facts are put on it," he said.
Members of Omagh Support and Self Help Group withdrew from the memorial working group last year, following disagreement about progress on the project and controversy over the wording.
The design competition is expected to be advertised in Northern Ireland, the Republic, Great Britain and in Spain.