TC/1799

Omagh bomb victims still await compensation
by Claire Anthony

AS families of the Omagh bomb victims this week prepared to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the atrocity, it has emerged that many victims are still waiting to receive compensation for the trauma they suffered.
Although regarded as the single worst atrocity in over 30 years of the Troubles, the families of the dead, as well as many of the hundreds injured or traumatised by the events of August 15, 1998, are still caught up in the battle for indemnity.
Their plight is in stark contrast to the situation in London, where, just over a month after four terrorist bombs on tube trains killed more than 50 people in the city, a task force has already been set up and the process of agreeing monetary compensation has begun. Equally, the British victims of the September 11 atrocity have received around £1.2 million each in compensation since 2001.
Incredibly, as pointed out by Mr Michael Gallagher, who lost his son, Aidan, in the blast, some people were refused compensation for emotional trauma because they had entered the scene of the explosion after it happened, or had gone voluntarily to Tyrone County Hospital to look for relatives or to help out.
Mr Gallagher and his family are among those who have yet to receive any compensation for their loss or the trauma they suffered.
Unfairness
He said: "The unfairness of the system is totally wrong, for example, in the case of people who went to the scene of the bomb afterwards or who went to Tyrone County, as I did. In the eyes of the Northern Ireland Compensation Agency, I went there voluntarily, but the way I see it, I was looking for my son, I had no choice.
"We have discovered that in the Hillsborough disaster, people were awarded compensation because they saw the coverage on TV and knew that their relatives were there. The Northern Ireland Compensation Agency will say that was a different situation because it was a civil action against the chief constable of Yorkshire, but that is just a nicety of the law and they are hiding behind it.
"As I sit here today, seven years on, I have not received one single penny of compensation for Aidan or for myself. Only that the law has changed to award compensation to the families of the dead in recent years, we wouldn't be eligible for anything.
"There seems to be a change in climate now, with the IRA statement. The government is making concessions to terrorists and former terrorists, so they should also be looking at how the victims are treated. We are not asking to be treated better than them, just to be treated the same. If adequate compensation had been awarded to victims 35 years ago, the Troubles wouldn't have lasted 35 years, the government would have found a way to end the conflict, there's no question about that," he said.
Justice
Godfrey Wilson, whose 15-year-old daughter, Lorraine, also died that day in Omagh, said that while justice, not money, was top of his agenda, the issue of compensation was one that needed to be addressed.
Mr Wilson received just £7,500 compensation for his daughter's life, while he and the rest of his family received nothing as they were not in the vicinity of the bomb when it went off.
He said: "I read that the London victims will get £12,000. Northern Ireland is still part of the UK. It puzzles me that they can put a price on a life, and decide that one life is worth more than another. My loss is just as great as that of anybody's in London, and I don't want to take anything away from what they have suffered, but it is exactly the same thing.
"My family and I were in the town that morning, we went to give Lorraine money as she wanted to choose her school shoes. We couldn't get in because of the bomb scare, so we returned home. I was in the back garden talking to my neighbour when the bomb went up, I saw the smoke and the debris, and I knew my daughter was in there.
"My solicitor told me that because I knew she was there, I would get compensation for the trauma I suffered, but shortly after, the situation seemed to change. They marked the bomb site with a circle and I was told I would get nothing because I wasn't in the circle at the time. But I had to go and identify my daughter's body, after the way she died. That bomb site moved from Market Street into my front bedroom, and then they tell me I'm bereaved, but not traumatised," he said.
Mr Wilson continued: "I don't want to take anything away from the people who were injured. But we were told that 'the dead can't spend money', and that money from the Omagh fund would go mainly to people who had been injured, and would have to live with those injuries for life. They were entitled to up to a quarter of a million, but Lorraine got £7,500. You could walk up the street and trip on a kerb and get that amount.
"Finances are not top of my list, but justice is. I need these people in court, and I need them to pay for what they did. But at the end of the day, I worked for 30 years. I put my trust in the state to protect me and my family and they failed in that duty. Compensation is one issue that does need to be dealt with."