TIMETABLE OF HORROR
Timetable of horror
SATURDAY, August 15, was just an ordinary shopping day in Omagh; perhaps a little busier given that a parade of floats was to go through the town in the late afternoon.
Under blue skies, adults and children were shopping, as they had done on many times before.
There was a mood of cheerfulness and anticipation as some waited for the festival floats - the climax of a festival which had gone on all week in Tyrone's county town.
At Killyclogher, happy youngsters were putting the finishing touches to their brightly-coloured floats, just in time to take part in the main procession through the town.
In the town itself, mothers and children were busy finishing off their shopping before taking their places along the route of the carnival was to take.
As well as the local festivities. Northern Ireland was heading for peace after so many years of bloodshed. People were rejoicing.
But the timetable of the worst day of horror Ulster has ever seen was beginning to unfold.
Our 'blackest day' was just beginning.
2.30pm - A warning call is made to the Ulster Television newsroom. The caller gives a terrorist code word and said a bomb had been planted outside the courthouse in Omagh.
The security forces react quickly, sealing off the area and moving shoppers and passers-by down the High Street away from the top of the town.
The mood is serious, hut there is little panic - over 30 years of the Troubles, Ulster people have grown used to such scares, and many believed the warning is a hoax.
2.45pm - A large crowd is being held away from the courthouse, behind the security tape in a busy area around the junction of market Street and Dublin road, several hundred yards from the courthouse. Many people were still carrying on with their shopping. The festival parade has not reached the town centre and organisers are ordered to keep the floats away.
3.10pm - The 500lb bomb explodes. There is half a second of eerie silence as the ear-splitting blast fades away, broken only by shattering glass and crumbling masonry. The come the screams, the moans and the sirens. As the smoke clears, the horror is revealed.
3.15pm - The rescue operation is under way, survivors helping ambulance men and women, and RUC officers tend the wounded. Police try to gain control, at first asking civilians for help, then ushering away the frantic relatives looking for their loved ones. A bus is flagged down to help take the wounded to hospital and free the ambulances for the life and death cases. Every eyewitness is left with a nightmarish image of the bloody aftermath.
3.16pm - Tyrone County Hospital, less than a mile away, is on full emergency alert and an appeal goes out for off-duty nurses and doctors to return. Within minutes the steps of the hospital are splattered with blood. Wards fill quickly and some of the injured and dying have to lie on mattresses in corridors.
5pm onwards - More seriously injured patients are transferred to other hospitals by helicopters. A temporary morgue has been set up at Lisanelly Army Base. Early reports indicate at least 21 people are dead.
7pm - Ambulances are still ferrying patients from the site to the hospitals. The sound of cutting equipment, used by rescuers searching shattered buildings for survivors mingles with the clatter of Army helicopters. Omagh Leisure Centre is commandeered as a meeting and waiting place for relatives of those still unaccounted for.
8.23pm - The first press conference at Tyrone County Hospital reveals that over 105 casualties have been dealt with in Omagh, and numerous others at Erne Hospital, Enniskillen. Twenty-six people are confirmed dead - 21 at the scene and five who died later at the hospital. A large number of people are still unaccounted for.
10.14pm -The casualty list has grown to over 140 at Tyrone County Hospital, and over 50 casualties have been seen at the Erne. Relatives of people still missing, continue their frantic search for loved ones at the hospital and the leisure centre.
Sunday
12.23am - Senior medial staff at the hospital reveal that over 220 casualties had been dealt with by the Tyrone County and Erne Hospitals.
There were now 28 people dead.
SATURDAY, August 15, was just an ordinary shopping day in Omagh; perhaps a little busier given that a parade of floats was to go through the town in the late afternoon.
Under blue skies, adults and children were shopping, as they had done on many times before.
There was a mood of cheerfulness and anticipation as some waited for the festival floats - the climax of a festival which had gone on all week in Tyrone's county town.
At Killyclogher, happy youngsters were putting the finishing touches to their brightly-coloured floats, just in time to take part in the main procession through the town.
In the town itself, mothers and children were busy finishing off their shopping before taking their places along the route of the carnival was to take.
As well as the local festivities. Northern Ireland was heading for peace after so many years of bloodshed. People were rejoicing.
But the timetable of the worst day of horror Ulster has ever seen was beginning to unfold.
Our 'blackest day' was just beginning.
2.30pm - A warning call is made to the Ulster Television newsroom. The caller gives a terrorist code word and said a bomb had been planted outside the courthouse in Omagh.
The security forces react quickly, sealing off the area and moving shoppers and passers-by down the High Street away from the top of the town.
The mood is serious, hut there is little panic - over 30 years of the Troubles, Ulster people have grown used to such scares, and many believed the warning is a hoax.
2.45pm - A large crowd is being held away from the courthouse, behind the security tape in a busy area around the junction of market Street and Dublin road, several hundred yards from the courthouse. Many people were still carrying on with their shopping. The festival parade has not reached the town centre and organisers are ordered to keep the floats away.
3.10pm - The 500lb bomb explodes. There is half a second of eerie silence as the ear-splitting blast fades away, broken only by shattering glass and crumbling masonry. The come the screams, the moans and the sirens. As the smoke clears, the horror is revealed.
3.15pm - The rescue operation is under way, survivors helping ambulance men and women, and RUC officers tend the wounded. Police try to gain control, at first asking civilians for help, then ushering away the frantic relatives looking for their loved ones. A bus is flagged down to help take the wounded to hospital and free the ambulances for the life and death cases. Every eyewitness is left with a nightmarish image of the bloody aftermath.
3.16pm - Tyrone County Hospital, less than a mile away, is on full emergency alert and an appeal goes out for off-duty nurses and doctors to return. Within minutes the steps of the hospital are splattered with blood. Wards fill quickly and some of the injured and dying have to lie on mattresses in corridors.
5pm onwards - More seriously injured patients are transferred to other hospitals by helicopters. A temporary morgue has been set up at Lisanelly Army Base. Early reports indicate at least 21 people are dead.
7pm - Ambulances are still ferrying patients from the site to the hospitals. The sound of cutting equipment, used by rescuers searching shattered buildings for survivors mingles with the clatter of Army helicopters. Omagh Leisure Centre is commandeered as a meeting and waiting place for relatives of those still unaccounted for.
8.23pm - The first press conference at Tyrone County Hospital reveals that over 105 casualties have been dealt with in Omagh, and numerous others at Erne Hospital, Enniskillen. Twenty-six people are confirmed dead - 21 at the scene and five who died later at the hospital. A large number of people are still unaccounted for.
10.14pm -The casualty list has grown to over 140 at Tyrone County Hospital, and over 50 casualties have been seen at the Erne. Relatives of people still missing, continue their frantic search for loved ones at the hospital and the leisure centre.
Sunday
12.23am - Senior medial staff at the hospital reveal that over 220 casualties had been dealt with by the Tyrone County and Erne Hospitals.
There were now 28 people dead.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/0020
Published Date: 20-Aug-98
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