WOMAN ON ITALIAN HOLIDAY TELLS HOW SHE HEARD BOMB NEWS
Woman on Italian holiday tells how she heard bomb news
AN OMAGH woman has recalled how she and her husband learned of the bomb attack on the town while on holiday - and their anxieties about being unable to contact their children, who were at home.
And, writing in the Cappagh Parish News, weekly news sheet, Mrs. Shiela McCaul said there was hope amid the suffering in the Omagh area.
Mrs. McCaul and her husband, Hugo, who are from the Killyclogher area, were halfway through a holiday on the Mediterranean on August 15 and first heard the news in a hotel in Italy.
"While we could not make sense of the sound, the pictures were all too painfully, shockingly, horrifyingly, clear. Our holiday ended there and then, and although it was to be four more days before we could get home, we immediately embarked on a journey of a different kind - a roller coaster journey of emotion -fear, dread, shock, horror, outrage, anger, pain and sadness - infinite sadness," said Mrs. McCaul, who is a senior education officer with the Western Education and Library Board.
She went on: "There was relief, overwhelming relief, and thankfulness when, after hours of frantic-search, we learned that our own four children were safe, but this was quickly followed by guilt that we felt such relief when we knew that so many others were not going to be so fortunate."
Mrs. McCaul said that memories of innocent days of childhood in Omagh became transposed with images of suffering captured on videotape.
On that fateful day men, women, and children had travelled to Omagh from all parts, little knowing they were to be murdered and maimed, Mrs. McCaul said. It posed the questions how could anyone plant such a bomb and why?.
Bitter Tears
"We have returned to Omagh now, we are back with our own people and have stood with countless others at lonely gravesides and wept bitter tears," she went on.
She continued: "There is much pain and suffering ahead, and loneliness and desolation still to be endured, and the people of Omagh and its environs will carry the mental and physical scars of what happened on Saturday August 15 to their graves.
"But there is hope too. For, just as the appalling scale of the tragedy has unfolded, so too had the heroism, bravery, skill and goodness of our townspeople -doctors, nurses, medical and auxiliary staff, police, ambulance crews, firemen, ministers of religion of all denominations, public
servants, politicians and the ordinary men and women who loved and cared for and tended those poor battered and bruised and wounded people.
"There is hope in the goodness of people, and this goodness and hope became tangible when we all gathered for that soothing, reverent and dignified service. As we stood in silent remembrance in lower Bridge Street, the only sounds to be heard at 10 minutes past three were the gentle lapping of the river and the gurgle of children's voices.
"Omagh town had become a great field of people honest decent, kindly people, reaching out, touching out caring with their eyes and hearts and hands, wanting to comfort and support, to mend and heal.
"And how we will need the support of each other and the understanding and strength of the outside world as we all become doers, comforters, mourners, helpers, listeners, facilitators and prayers in the days and months and years ahead.
"For the sake of little Sean McLaughlin, the 12-year old schoolboy who wrote in his prizewinning poem that 'we must scatter seeds of hope on our land' and for all our dead and injured and their loved ones, we must begin again to make Omagh a memorial to lasting peace," she said.
AN OMAGH woman has recalled how she and her husband learned of the bomb attack on the town while on holiday - and their anxieties about being unable to contact their children, who were at home.
And, writing in the Cappagh Parish News, weekly news sheet, Mrs. Shiela McCaul said there was hope amid the suffering in the Omagh area.
Mrs. McCaul and her husband, Hugo, who are from the Killyclogher area, were halfway through a holiday on the Mediterranean on August 15 and first heard the news in a hotel in Italy.
"While we could not make sense of the sound, the pictures were all too painfully, shockingly, horrifyingly, clear. Our holiday ended there and then, and although it was to be four more days before we could get home, we immediately embarked on a journey of a different kind - a roller coaster journey of emotion -fear, dread, shock, horror, outrage, anger, pain and sadness - infinite sadness," said Mrs. McCaul, who is a senior education officer with the Western Education and Library Board.
She went on: "There was relief, overwhelming relief, and thankfulness when, after hours of frantic-search, we learned that our own four children were safe, but this was quickly followed by guilt that we felt such relief when we knew that so many others were not going to be so fortunate."
Mrs. McCaul said that memories of innocent days of childhood in Omagh became transposed with images of suffering captured on videotape.
On that fateful day men, women, and children had travelled to Omagh from all parts, little knowing they were to be murdered and maimed, Mrs. McCaul said. It posed the questions how could anyone plant such a bomb and why?.
Bitter Tears
"We have returned to Omagh now, we are back with our own people and have stood with countless others at lonely gravesides and wept bitter tears," she went on.
She continued: "There is much pain and suffering ahead, and loneliness and desolation still to be endured, and the people of Omagh and its environs will carry the mental and physical scars of what happened on Saturday August 15 to their graves.
"But there is hope too. For, just as the appalling scale of the tragedy has unfolded, so too had the heroism, bravery, skill and goodness of our townspeople -doctors, nurses, medical and auxiliary staff, police, ambulance crews, firemen, ministers of religion of all denominations, public
servants, politicians and the ordinary men and women who loved and cared for and tended those poor battered and bruised and wounded people.
"There is hope in the goodness of people, and this goodness and hope became tangible when we all gathered for that soothing, reverent and dignified service. As we stood in silent remembrance in lower Bridge Street, the only sounds to be heard at 10 minutes past three were the gentle lapping of the river and the gurgle of children's voices.
"Omagh town had become a great field of people honest decent, kindly people, reaching out, touching out caring with their eyes and hearts and hands, wanting to comfort and support, to mend and heal.
"And how we will need the support of each other and the understanding and strength of the outside world as we all become doers, comforters, mourners, helpers, listeners, facilitators and prayers in the days and months and years ahead.
"For the sake of little Sean McLaughlin, the 12-year old schoolboy who wrote in his prizewinning poem that 'we must scatter seeds of hope on our land' and for all our dead and injured and their loved ones, we must begin again to make Omagh a memorial to lasting peace," she said.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/0574
Published Date: 03-Sep-98
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