TC/1873

Lottery funding for Omagh Support and Self Help Group
by Jonathan Rainey

THE Omagh Support and Self Help Group (OSSHG) has received almost £5,000 from the National Lottery to go towards funding the creation of an online archive and website recording the events surrounding the 1998 Omagh bomb.
The local support group, which was set up by the families of the Omagh bomb victims in the aftermath of the atrocity, was among groups to share in a windfall (recently announced by the National Lottery's small grants scheme, Awards for All. The announcement is part of a grants roll-out of more than £890,000 to 138 groups across Northern Ireland.
Michael Gallagher, chairman of the OSSHG, has played a pivotal role in putting together the website and archive and said that it I would act as a memorial for all the victims of the Omagh bomb.
Mr Gallagher continued: "But it's not just a parochial archive, for it can be a platform for the victims of the bombings in Monaghan, Dublin, New York - all over the world."
As well as providing an archive for anyone studying the Troubles and a source of current information for victims' families, the construction of the website has also had a therapeutic benefit for those involved.
"The vast majority of the cuttings and photographs that have been uploaded onto the website were collected and supplied by the families," said Mr Gallagher.
"In our house at the time of the tragedy people would bring us all the cuttings from the local and national papers. We couldn't look at them and packed them all away in the hot press, but it was nice to know they were there and preserved for all time, so that if people wanted to know about those who died they could."
The support group chairman added: "So much of this information would have been lost for all time had it not been digitatised for the archive. Once we started putting it together, people started bringing out all the boxes of material they'd collected and maybe not looked at for a long time."
Awards for All Programmes manager, Punam McGookin, said "The Awards for All programme, supported by Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Big Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sports Council for Northern Ireland continues to make a huge impact in local communities. It is clear that there is a real need for such funding and that smaller projects can bring positive changes to the lives of local people.
"The popularity of Awards for All is growing. Its application process is user-friendly and shall remain so, with funding continuing to favour smaller groups. The accessibility of the programme has been key to its success in Northern Ireland."