HEARTBROKEN DRUMQUIN MAN TELLS OF FINDING WIFE'S BODY AMONG RUBBLE
Heartbroken Drumquin man tells of finding wife's body among the rubble
KEVIN Skelton reaffiliated with the Fermanagh and Western Referees Association earlier this month and, on Saturday, expected to take charge of a game on the opening day of the season, as he had done for very many years.
Instead, his fixture was postponed, and the Drumquin man decided to take his family into Omagh to shop.
He returned home without two of them - his wife, Philomena (Mena), blasted to her death by the bombers, who had also chosen Saturday to visit Omagh, and his youngest daughter Shauna, whisked to Altnagelvin Hospital with head injuries.
But Mr. Skelton had spent 90 minutes searching for her, believing she, too, had been killed, before discovering the 13-year-old had been taken to hospital.
And, for a frantic 20 minutes, in the immediate aftermath of the bombing, he also thought his second daughter, Tracy (15), had been wiped out.
"I eventually found her on her hands and knees struggling to find her mother's pulse, but then I could not find Shauna," said. Mr. Skelton.
His wife (39), and the two girls had gone into Kells drapers, while he called into Mr. Gs next door, and his eldest daughter, 18-year-old Paula, went 'up the street' to shop.
When the bomb was detonated, Mr. Skelton said there was only a shop wall between him, and his wife and two daughters.
The grieving 43-year-old lorry driver, who works for Moffatt's of Drumquin, went on: "We were only three feet apart, yet Mena was killed and all I received was a cut to my forehead."
He described running through a space that had once been a plate-glass window to find his wife's body spreadeagled in the rubble of the drapery shop.
"I was not even knocked down by the blast, but poor Mena was face down in the rubble, with her clothes blown off. I tried to find her pulse before the police took me away," said Mr. Skelton.
'Digging'
"As soon as I could, I rushed back into the shop and started digging with my bare hands, looking for Shauna. The police again dragged me away, but I went back, and found Tracy over her mother's body.
"I genuinely believed at that time that Shauna was buried in the shop.
It was the longest hour-and-a-half I have ever spent. I will never forget it, or of learning that a Finola Scott and a Mr. McMenamin are believed to have helped her or carried her out of the shop. I am thankful to them and to anyone else who may have assisted her."
The father of four - 16-year-old son, Ray, had stayed behind to fish the local river - said he did not know how he would cope now.
"Obviously I will have to take it just one day at a time, but my first priority must be to see Shauna home again and back in full health," he said, shortly after returning from a lengthy visit to her Altnagelvin bedside on Monday evening.
Miss Skelton had a metal plate inserted in her broken jaw, and her father believes she will have to undergo plastic surgery to repair damage caused by a large gash to her neck.
Her mother, according to her father, did not have a mark on her face when he was finally called to officially identify her body, after waiting throughout Saturday night. "When we had first learned of the bomb, Mena had said, 'let's go home', but we were just herded further and further down the street, and could not get back to our car," said Mr. Skelton.
"We had only parted to go into the two shops when it exploded."
The couple, who married four years after meeting in 1964. would have celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary on August 31. Mena, a native of Tubrid, Kesh, was 19 at the time of her marriage and would have been 40 in September.
She was a daughter of Mary Logue, and the late Paddy Logue, and is, in addition to her own family, survived by her mother, three sisters, Teresa, Rosaleen and Caroline, and brothers, Michael, John, Gerard and P.J.
Earlier in the summer Mrs. Skelton, who was a proud housewife and devoted mother, had, typically, cared for a Romanian orphan for three weeks. Husband, Kevin, is a keen fundraiser for the Romanian Orphanage Appeal, and cycles miles for the charity.
He is also fixtures secretary for Tyrone hurlers, and referees both soccer and GAA.
"Mena lived for her family and was very fond of children. This year she voted for the first time - in favour of the Agreement, that we both hoped would bring peace," said Mr. Skelton.
KEVIN Skelton reaffiliated with the Fermanagh and Western Referees Association earlier this month and, on Saturday, expected to take charge of a game on the opening day of the season, as he had done for very many years.
Instead, his fixture was postponed, and the Drumquin man decided to take his family into Omagh to shop.
He returned home without two of them - his wife, Philomena (Mena), blasted to her death by the bombers, who had also chosen Saturday to visit Omagh, and his youngest daughter Shauna, whisked to Altnagelvin Hospital with head injuries.
But Mr. Skelton had spent 90 minutes searching for her, believing she, too, had been killed, before discovering the 13-year-old had been taken to hospital.
And, for a frantic 20 minutes, in the immediate aftermath of the bombing, he also thought his second daughter, Tracy (15), had been wiped out.
"I eventually found her on her hands and knees struggling to find her mother's pulse, but then I could not find Shauna," said. Mr. Skelton.
His wife (39), and the two girls had gone into Kells drapers, while he called into Mr. Gs next door, and his eldest daughter, 18-year-old Paula, went 'up the street' to shop.
When the bomb was detonated, Mr. Skelton said there was only a shop wall between him, and his wife and two daughters.
The grieving 43-year-old lorry driver, who works for Moffatt's of Drumquin, went on: "We were only three feet apart, yet Mena was killed and all I received was a cut to my forehead."
He described running through a space that had once been a plate-glass window to find his wife's body spreadeagled in the rubble of the drapery shop.
"I was not even knocked down by the blast, but poor Mena was face down in the rubble, with her clothes blown off. I tried to find her pulse before the police took me away," said Mr. Skelton.
'Digging'
"As soon as I could, I rushed back into the shop and started digging with my bare hands, looking for Shauna. The police again dragged me away, but I went back, and found Tracy over her mother's body.
"I genuinely believed at that time that Shauna was buried in the shop.
It was the longest hour-and-a-half I have ever spent. I will never forget it, or of learning that a Finola Scott and a Mr. McMenamin are believed to have helped her or carried her out of the shop. I am thankful to them and to anyone else who may have assisted her."
The father of four - 16-year-old son, Ray, had stayed behind to fish the local river - said he did not know how he would cope now.
"Obviously I will have to take it just one day at a time, but my first priority must be to see Shauna home again and back in full health," he said, shortly after returning from a lengthy visit to her Altnagelvin bedside on Monday evening.
Miss Skelton had a metal plate inserted in her broken jaw, and her father believes she will have to undergo plastic surgery to repair damage caused by a large gash to her neck.
Her mother, according to her father, did not have a mark on her face when he was finally called to officially identify her body, after waiting throughout Saturday night. "When we had first learned of the bomb, Mena had said, 'let's go home', but we were just herded further and further down the street, and could not get back to our car," said Mr. Skelton.
"We had only parted to go into the two shops when it exploded."
The couple, who married four years after meeting in 1964. would have celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary on August 31. Mena, a native of Tubrid, Kesh, was 19 at the time of her marriage and would have been 40 in September.
She was a daughter of Mary Logue, and the late Paddy Logue, and is, in addition to her own family, survived by her mother, three sisters, Teresa, Rosaleen and Caroline, and brothers, Michael, John, Gerard and P.J.
Earlier in the summer Mrs. Skelton, who was a proud housewife and devoted mother, had, typically, cared for a Romanian orphan for three weeks. Husband, Kevin, is a keen fundraiser for the Romanian Orphanage Appeal, and cycles miles for the charity.
He is also fixtures secretary for Tyrone hurlers, and referees both soccer and GAA.
"Mena lived for her family and was very fond of children. This year she voted for the first time - in favour of the Agreement, that we both hoped would bring peace," said Mr. Skelton.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/0042
Published Date: 20-Aug-98
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