SL/011

LAST RITES FOR BLAST VICTIMS

Last rites for blast victims

A Catholic priest, Fr John Gilmore, spent the day and the entire evening in Tyrone County Hospital in Omagh, and described how he gave the Last Rites to casualties lying on mattresses in hospital corridors in the minutes immediately after the explosion.
"To start with it was just nonstop. There were people on the floors, mattresses and chairs. Some of the early ones were very badly injured. Some I anointed on mattresses on the floor. "It is something I have never experienced before."
He said medical staff dealt swiftly with the injured, and as the day progressed he comforted families bereaved in the explosion and many of those injured. "Every one of those people was a tragedy in their own right. When you think of how many you have to think of the scale of the tragedy."

Further Information

Publisher: SUNDAY LIFE

Ref: SL/011

Published Date: 16-Aug-98

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