BLAST TERROR FOR YOUNG MOTHER AND HER TWO SONS
Blast terror for young mother and her two sons
A YOUNG Omagh woman injured in the car bomb attack has spoken from her hospital bed of the terror it brought to her family.
Sharon Haughey was shopping in Omagh as she did every Saturday afternoon with her two young boys, when the bomb exploded destroying lives and property. She later discovered that two of her aunts and an uncle were also injured in the blast.
The 25-year-old mother said the Saturday of the bombing was to have been a special one for her two sons, Darryl (6) and Matthew (2), because of the carnival floats that were due to pass through the town.
Instead she recounted vivid images of her eldest boy screaming 'mummy come back', when she was blown across the road by the force of the bomb. Miraculously, when she picked herself up, she found both boys unscathed, standing exactly where she had left them, but in hysterics.
Miss Haughey, who lives with her partner, Martin Floyd, at Strathroy, was speaking to reporters from her Ward 5A hospital bed at Tyrone County Hospital on Thursday last.
She said she believed she was remarkably lucky to be alive, as shrapnel, which had penetrated her neck on the left side travelled to the back, rather than to the front, where it could have blocked her windpipe.
Two specimen bottles stood by her bedside, displaying the shrapnel doctors had removed from her body.
Beginning her account of events of that fateful afternoon, Sharon said: "1 would usually go into town on Saturday with my two sons, in the afternoon, but that day was to be a special day for the boys, because the carnival was on. Unfortunately we did not reach the carnival, because the bomb exploded.
"We had gone out for our lunch, and then we went to get something to wear. I was told in one of the shops that there was a bomb, and that we would have to move to the bottom of the town.
"I walked down the town, and met my two aunts and uncle, who were also involved in the bomb."
'White light'
Asked to recount the immediate images she could recollect from the time the bomb was detonated, Sharon said or her ordeal: "I remember seeing a white light in my right eye and shrapnel coming flying in my direction. I was blown down. Darryl was shouting. 'Mummy come back'.
"Every time I went to get up I was blown down again. Then I got help, and got across the road to my children. They were just the way they were."
The young mother then recounted how she had been taken to Tyrone County Hospital, and said she had not been aware of the extent of the number of casualties or injured until much later on Saturday.
"I was brought to hospital by an Ulsterbus. At casualty I was just devastated by the scenes I saw. My children were just in hysterics." she said.
"When I arrived at casualty my two sons were taken somewhere to be calmed down. I found a chair, but everybody was just rushing, rushing over each other, trying to help each other.
'"Then I was taken to the treatment room, and to Ward 5 to be stitched. I knew myself I was bleeding, but I was more worried about my two sons," Sharon recalled.
"Darryl kept saying, 'Mummy, mummy you're bleeding,' and I tried to comfort him," she added.
Sharon said that although the hospital staff had not been able to deal with her very quickly, she realised the pressures they were under.
She explained: "They were dealing with the more seriously injured, and I understood that. I had been bandaged up in town before I had been brought out, so it helped a bit."
Turning for a moment to her relatives, who she had met in town, her aunts, Mrs Teresa Fleming and Mrs. Marion Mclaughlin, and her uncle, Mr. Pat Haughey, Sharon said that even when her mother discovered she was in hospital, and came to visit her, she had not known that they had been caught up in the blast.
"My mother had got word about me and came into me in the treatment room. 1 asked her about my uncle and two aunts, but she did not know they had been in town. She then went to look for them, but could not find my uncle Pat on the list of injured," she said.
"She found him in Enniskillen at 10.30 that night," she added.
'Thought I was dead'
When asked what her immediate thoughts were after the bomb exploded, Sharon said: "1 thought 1 was dead when 1 was blown across the road. My jeans had been blown off, so 1 thought I had lost a leg. I was not really aware of the other people around me."
After treatment at casualty, she said she became aware of how lucky she had been.
"I had two bits of shrapnel enter into the left-hand side of my neck, and travel around the back; two very big pieces. 1 was lucky they did not travel around the front where they could have blocked my windpipe; if they had I would not be here today talking to you," she said.
Sharon also described her other injuries, to both her arms and legs, back and hip, and said she was waiting for notification to go back to theatre to have other pieces of shrapnel removed.
She said after her experiences that she would find it difficult to go back into public areas and recalled earlier in the week how upset she had been when taken from her ward to the outpatients department.
"I am frightened. On 'Tuesday when I was going to get my ears tested at outpatients I was being brought by wheelchair. I was shaking. Darryl has told me he does not want to go back to the town again," she said.
Sharon said the bombers had done a lot of damage to people's lives, and believed the future was uncertain.
She went on: "I can't see peace, but I would love it for my two sons as they are growing up. I am going to have to be strong for my children's sake. Only for my children it would be a lot harder for me.
"Over time 1 am going to need help and support from my family."
She told the Tyrone Constitution she was going to keep the pieces of shrapnel as souvenirs to show her two boys as they got older.
Smile
With a smile she added: "But they will probably be rusted by then."
Of her relatives, Sharon said Mrs. Fleming, who lives in Omagh, had been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital, with shrapnel dangerously lodged between her heart and lungs.
Mrs. McLaughlin, from Fintona, received shrapnel wounds to both knees and subsequently discharged herself from hospital, while Mr. Haughey, of Omagh, was still in the Erne Hospital with shrapnel wounds to his left leg.
Sharon said her son, Darryl, who is staying with his grandmother, had been to see her once, and Matthew, who had been to the hospital twice to see her mother, was now 'barred' as he had developed measles. He is being looked after by his father.
A native of the Killyclogher area, Sharon lived there for 16 years, before moving to Strathroy. She revealed she had also had some tiny pieces of shrapnel removed from the back of her head.
A YOUNG Omagh woman injured in the car bomb attack has spoken from her hospital bed of the terror it brought to her family.
Sharon Haughey was shopping in Omagh as she did every Saturday afternoon with her two young boys, when the bomb exploded destroying lives and property. She later discovered that two of her aunts and an uncle were also injured in the blast.
The 25-year-old mother said the Saturday of the bombing was to have been a special one for her two sons, Darryl (6) and Matthew (2), because of the carnival floats that were due to pass through the town.
Instead she recounted vivid images of her eldest boy screaming 'mummy come back', when she was blown across the road by the force of the bomb. Miraculously, when she picked herself up, she found both boys unscathed, standing exactly where she had left them, but in hysterics.
Miss Haughey, who lives with her partner, Martin Floyd, at Strathroy, was speaking to reporters from her Ward 5A hospital bed at Tyrone County Hospital on Thursday last.
She said she believed she was remarkably lucky to be alive, as shrapnel, which had penetrated her neck on the left side travelled to the back, rather than to the front, where it could have blocked her windpipe.
Two specimen bottles stood by her bedside, displaying the shrapnel doctors had removed from her body.
Beginning her account of events of that fateful afternoon, Sharon said: "1 would usually go into town on Saturday with my two sons, in the afternoon, but that day was to be a special day for the boys, because the carnival was on. Unfortunately we did not reach the carnival, because the bomb exploded.
"We had gone out for our lunch, and then we went to get something to wear. I was told in one of the shops that there was a bomb, and that we would have to move to the bottom of the town.
"I walked down the town, and met my two aunts and uncle, who were also involved in the bomb."
'White light'
Asked to recount the immediate images she could recollect from the time the bomb was detonated, Sharon said or her ordeal: "I remember seeing a white light in my right eye and shrapnel coming flying in my direction. I was blown down. Darryl was shouting. 'Mummy come back'.
"Every time I went to get up I was blown down again. Then I got help, and got across the road to my children. They were just the way they were."
The young mother then recounted how she had been taken to Tyrone County Hospital, and said she had not been aware of the extent of the number of casualties or injured until much later on Saturday.
"I was brought to hospital by an Ulsterbus. At casualty I was just devastated by the scenes I saw. My children were just in hysterics." she said.
"When I arrived at casualty my two sons were taken somewhere to be calmed down. I found a chair, but everybody was just rushing, rushing over each other, trying to help each other.
'"Then I was taken to the treatment room, and to Ward 5 to be stitched. I knew myself I was bleeding, but I was more worried about my two sons," Sharon recalled.
"Darryl kept saying, 'Mummy, mummy you're bleeding,' and I tried to comfort him," she added.
Sharon said that although the hospital staff had not been able to deal with her very quickly, she realised the pressures they were under.
She explained: "They were dealing with the more seriously injured, and I understood that. I had been bandaged up in town before I had been brought out, so it helped a bit."
Turning for a moment to her relatives, who she had met in town, her aunts, Mrs Teresa Fleming and Mrs. Marion Mclaughlin, and her uncle, Mr. Pat Haughey, Sharon said that even when her mother discovered she was in hospital, and came to visit her, she had not known that they had been caught up in the blast.
"My mother had got word about me and came into me in the treatment room. 1 asked her about my uncle and two aunts, but she did not know they had been in town. She then went to look for them, but could not find my uncle Pat on the list of injured," she said.
"She found him in Enniskillen at 10.30 that night," she added.
'Thought I was dead'
When asked what her immediate thoughts were after the bomb exploded, Sharon said: "1 thought 1 was dead when 1 was blown across the road. My jeans had been blown off, so 1 thought I had lost a leg. I was not really aware of the other people around me."
After treatment at casualty, she said she became aware of how lucky she had been.
"I had two bits of shrapnel enter into the left-hand side of my neck, and travel around the back; two very big pieces. 1 was lucky they did not travel around the front where they could have blocked my windpipe; if they had I would not be here today talking to you," she said.
Sharon also described her other injuries, to both her arms and legs, back and hip, and said she was waiting for notification to go back to theatre to have other pieces of shrapnel removed.
She said after her experiences that she would find it difficult to go back into public areas and recalled earlier in the week how upset she had been when taken from her ward to the outpatients department.
"I am frightened. On 'Tuesday when I was going to get my ears tested at outpatients I was being brought by wheelchair. I was shaking. Darryl has told me he does not want to go back to the town again," she said.
Sharon said the bombers had done a lot of damage to people's lives, and believed the future was uncertain.
She went on: "I can't see peace, but I would love it for my two sons as they are growing up. I am going to have to be strong for my children's sake. Only for my children it would be a lot harder for me.
"Over time 1 am going to need help and support from my family."
She told the Tyrone Constitution she was going to keep the pieces of shrapnel as souvenirs to show her two boys as they got older.
Smile
With a smile she added: "But they will probably be rusted by then."
Of her relatives, Sharon said Mrs. Fleming, who lives in Omagh, had been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital, with shrapnel dangerously lodged between her heart and lungs.
Mrs. McLaughlin, from Fintona, received shrapnel wounds to both knees and subsequently discharged herself from hospital, while Mr. Haughey, of Omagh, was still in the Erne Hospital with shrapnel wounds to his left leg.
Sharon said her son, Darryl, who is staying with his grandmother, had been to see her once, and Matthew, who had been to the hospital twice to see her mother, was now 'barred' as he had developed measles. He is being looked after by his father.
A native of the Killyclogher area, Sharon lived there for 16 years, before moving to Strathroy. She revealed she had also had some tiny pieces of shrapnel removed from the back of her head.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/0280
Published Date: 27-Aug-98
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