MY MEMORIES OF THE BOMB WILL NEVER GO AWAY
My memories of the bomb will never go away, I will learn to live with it'
ALTHOUGH it has been a lonely year since the Market Street bombing, for Omagh business woman, Mrs. Eileen Curran it has passed in a flash and has also been a time of renewal.
For Mrs. Curran, owner of Thompsons, a giftware shop, which was severely damaged in the blast, the past 12 months have been a period of deep reflection on her personal circumstances, as well as an opportunity to marshal her thoughts and plan for the future.
It is also the first time that Mrs. Curran has had to find the courage to face hardship on her own.
In the past she had a young family and her husband to cushion the blows of the slings and arrows of life, but in the last year Mrs. Curran has had to discover a new inner strength and courage to help her to move forward.
Mrs. Curran and her late husband, Patrick, opened Thompsons 27 years ago, and while Mr. Curran took care of the 'business' side of things, Eileen was left to look after the customers and enjoy the more 'social' side of being one of Omagh's longest standing fancy goods retailers.
And it is her late husband's ability to arrange and organise that Mrs. Curran says she has really missed since she was put out of business.
"Pat was the one that sorted things out -1 never had to think. It was he who made all the arrangements and dealt with any worries.
"When Pat died I said to everyone that it was the shop that kept me sane. I did not have time to think or to be lonely because I had so many other things to occupy me, and it was not until the town was bombed that I was able to grieve about him in a different way, because he could have sorted it out," she said.
In the weeks immediately after the bombing Mrs. Curran, who suffered severe concussion, injuries to her left arm, cuts and extensive bruising, said she found herself totally unprepared for enforced retirement.
"One day I was at work and the next day I wasn't," she recalled, and added: "I don't think I will ever really get over losing the shop in that way."
Reopened
It has been a little over 10 years ago that the couple had spent a small fortune having the shop completely renovated, and while what is left of it still stands in ruins, Mrs. Curran said she fully intended to have it rebuilt and reopened.
Work has yet to start on what is left of the shell of the premises. At the moment, the roof, front and gable wall of the shop have to be replaced, and the inside needs to be fully rebuilt and restocked.
"I badly miss the contact with the people and customers that I had chats with. It kept me from being lonely. For those hours that I was in the shop every day I felt part of something else," she said.
It was because she was in the process of selling a last minute purchase of an engagement present to a young couple that Mrs. Curran is still alive to tell the tale.
She was at the counter near the front windows of the shop when the 500lb device detonated minutes earlier she had been outside watching the evacuation from High Street into Market Street.
While she cannot remember what happened in the seconds and minutes immediately after the explosion, Mrs. Curran said she remembered coming to on her hands and knees outside her shop.
Now, although all feelings of nervousness, panic and the inability to relax and sleep have subsided, Mrs. Curran says her thoughts are preoccupied with her plans to rebuild her shop and in so doing, her life.
"I am looking forward to reopening it. In the summer months things are alright for me, I can get out and about and work in the garden, but during the winter I felt as if I had nothing to get up for," she said.
Too depressing
"In the winter I had no interest in going down town it was just too depressing to see it, but it is important to try and rebuild rather than look back all the time.
"It kills you when you look back, you have to keep looking forward for your own self. If you allow yourself to slide and look back all the time it will become very depressing," she said.
Although Mrs. Curran said she realised it would be some time yet before her gift shop was up and running again, she said it would take the town of Omagh longer again to come to terms with the weight of what had occurred.
Despite the intense glare of media spotlight and the series of documentaries and TV specials that atrocities such as the bombing of Omagh generate, Mrs. Curran said she bore no ill-will to those who have spent the past year charting the progress of her townspeople, or the reporting of the incident last year.
"If the world had not seen Donna Marie Keyes or that other brave young girl, Claire Gallagher, there would not have been as much caring given to Omagh from the outside.
"People gave out about the media, but if you don't know about a thing, how can you react to it or against it?" she asked.
"I was glad to see them showing what the people here have suffered, and the horrific injuries that occurred. That let other people see and as a consequence a lot of people gave to the Omagh Fund. There would have been very little sympathy from the outside world if the media had not been here to record it," she said.
Overall, Mrs. Curran said it had been a sad but short year: "It has gone past so quickly, I find it had to believe that a whole year has gone in.
"My memories of the bombing will never go away, but I will learn to live with it. You have to learn to deal with it - you could never forget, how could you?" she said.
ALTHOUGH it has been a lonely year since the Market Street bombing, for Omagh business woman, Mrs. Eileen Curran it has passed in a flash and has also been a time of renewal.
For Mrs. Curran, owner of Thompsons, a giftware shop, which was severely damaged in the blast, the past 12 months have been a period of deep reflection on her personal circumstances, as well as an opportunity to marshal her thoughts and plan for the future.
It is also the first time that Mrs. Curran has had to find the courage to face hardship on her own.
In the past she had a young family and her husband to cushion the blows of the slings and arrows of life, but in the last year Mrs. Curran has had to discover a new inner strength and courage to help her to move forward.
Mrs. Curran and her late husband, Patrick, opened Thompsons 27 years ago, and while Mr. Curran took care of the 'business' side of things, Eileen was left to look after the customers and enjoy the more 'social' side of being one of Omagh's longest standing fancy goods retailers.
And it is her late husband's ability to arrange and organise that Mrs. Curran says she has really missed since she was put out of business.
"Pat was the one that sorted things out -1 never had to think. It was he who made all the arrangements and dealt with any worries.
"When Pat died I said to everyone that it was the shop that kept me sane. I did not have time to think or to be lonely because I had so many other things to occupy me, and it was not until the town was bombed that I was able to grieve about him in a different way, because he could have sorted it out," she said.
In the weeks immediately after the bombing Mrs. Curran, who suffered severe concussion, injuries to her left arm, cuts and extensive bruising, said she found herself totally unprepared for enforced retirement.
"One day I was at work and the next day I wasn't," she recalled, and added: "I don't think I will ever really get over losing the shop in that way."
Reopened
It has been a little over 10 years ago that the couple had spent a small fortune having the shop completely renovated, and while what is left of it still stands in ruins, Mrs. Curran said she fully intended to have it rebuilt and reopened.
Work has yet to start on what is left of the shell of the premises. At the moment, the roof, front and gable wall of the shop have to be replaced, and the inside needs to be fully rebuilt and restocked.
"I badly miss the contact with the people and customers that I had chats with. It kept me from being lonely. For those hours that I was in the shop every day I felt part of something else," she said.
It was because she was in the process of selling a last minute purchase of an engagement present to a young couple that Mrs. Curran is still alive to tell the tale.
She was at the counter near the front windows of the shop when the 500lb device detonated minutes earlier she had been outside watching the evacuation from High Street into Market Street.
While she cannot remember what happened in the seconds and minutes immediately after the explosion, Mrs. Curran said she remembered coming to on her hands and knees outside her shop.
Now, although all feelings of nervousness, panic and the inability to relax and sleep have subsided, Mrs. Curran says her thoughts are preoccupied with her plans to rebuild her shop and in so doing, her life.
"I am looking forward to reopening it. In the summer months things are alright for me, I can get out and about and work in the garden, but during the winter I felt as if I had nothing to get up for," she said.
Too depressing
"In the winter I had no interest in going down town it was just too depressing to see it, but it is important to try and rebuild rather than look back all the time.
"It kills you when you look back, you have to keep looking forward for your own self. If you allow yourself to slide and look back all the time it will become very depressing," she said.
Although Mrs. Curran said she realised it would be some time yet before her gift shop was up and running again, she said it would take the town of Omagh longer again to come to terms with the weight of what had occurred.
Despite the intense glare of media spotlight and the series of documentaries and TV specials that atrocities such as the bombing of Omagh generate, Mrs. Curran said she bore no ill-will to those who have spent the past year charting the progress of her townspeople, or the reporting of the incident last year.
"If the world had not seen Donna Marie Keyes or that other brave young girl, Claire Gallagher, there would not have been as much caring given to Omagh from the outside.
"People gave out about the media, but if you don't know about a thing, how can you react to it or against it?" she asked.
"I was glad to see them showing what the people here have suffered, and the horrific injuries that occurred. That let other people see and as a consequence a lot of people gave to the Omagh Fund. There would have been very little sympathy from the outside world if the media had not been here to record it," she said.
Overall, Mrs. Curran said it had been a sad but short year: "It has gone past so quickly, I find it had to believe that a whole year has gone in.
"My memories of the bombing will never go away, but I will learn to live with it. You have to learn to deal with it - you could never forget, how could you?" she said.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/0714
Published Date: 12-Aug-99
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