PRIESTS PLEA OVER DISPUTE
Priest's plea over dispute
by Ciaran Mc Guigan
A PRIEST who helped comfort the families who lost their loved ones in the Omagh bombing last night made a passionate plea for the end of a bitter row over memorial service to honour those killed,
Fr Kevin Mullan (pictured), a native of Omagh, was on the scene of the horrific car-bomb attack shortly after it ripped through the centre of the Co Tyrone town on August 15,1998, and gave the last rites.to those who lay dying and tried to comfort the injured.
As the 10th anniversary of the slaughter of 29 people and two unborn children approaches this week, plans for a memorial service have been the subject of a growing row.
It's believed that members of as many as 10 families will decline that service in favour of a service held in the town's memorial garden two days later.
Some of the bereaved are unhappy about the planning of a memorial in the town and some have not given permission for the names of their loved ones to be included on a tribute to those who died in the bomb. Others are unhappy at the organisation of an 'official' service to be held in the town on Friday - 10 years to the day after the bomb-attack - and some of the political guests invited by the Sinn Fein-led Omagh District Council to that will attend the service.
Fr Mullan told Sunday Life: "Any controversy is not going to honour the dead, the injured, or support the bereaved. It's not helpful for the town. It's not healthy for people to help them to move on if division is built into memory."
by Ciaran Mc Guigan
A PRIEST who helped comfort the families who lost their loved ones in the Omagh bombing last night made a passionate plea for the end of a bitter row over memorial service to honour those killed,
Fr Kevin Mullan (pictured), a native of Omagh, was on the scene of the horrific car-bomb attack shortly after it ripped through the centre of the Co Tyrone town on August 15,1998, and gave the last rites.to those who lay dying and tried to comfort the injured.
As the 10th anniversary of the slaughter of 29 people and two unborn children approaches this week, plans for a memorial service have been the subject of a growing row.
It's believed that members of as many as 10 families will decline that service in favour of a service held in the town's memorial garden two days later.
Some of the bereaved are unhappy about the planning of a memorial in the town and some have not given permission for the names of their loved ones to be included on a tribute to those who died in the bomb. Others are unhappy at the organisation of an 'official' service to be held in the town on Friday - 10 years to the day after the bomb-attack - and some of the political guests invited by the Sinn Fein-led Omagh District Council to that will attend the service.
Fr Mullan told Sunday Life: "Any controversy is not going to honour the dead, the injured, or support the bereaved. It's not helpful for the town. It's not healthy for people to help them to move on if division is built into memory."
Further Information
Publisher: SUNDAY LIFE
Ref: SL10An/04
Published Date: 10-Aug-08
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