TRAUMA EXPERIENCED OVER BOMB MEMORIAL CONTROVERSY INTOLERABLE
Trauma' experienced over bomb memorial controversy 'intolerable'
Sir,
I have already written at some length on the quite unnecessary delay the Omagh bomb victims' families have has to endure, before a suitable memorial can be erected in the in the town. They were once given to understand a stone would be put in place on the actual bomb site in Market Street, at the time the street refurbishment project was being completed. Most of your readers know the main reasons for the hold-up, and at this very sensitive time I do not wish to elaborate on all the details for those who are not aware of them.
I understand that the families had sought permission to erect a stone, just a simple memorial and all of them were in agreement with the brief inscription chosen to reflect the truth of what had actually taken place on August 15, 1998.
However, although the district council had given them an undertaking that the memorial would be erected in time for the opening of the street last year, it subsequently reneged on its promise, mainly because the leading party took exception to the wording that was to go on the stone.
When the then Victims Minister, Mr Hanson, was in the town last November - to open the �1.7million project, he was left in no doubt of the anger the relatives felt when told that the words they had submitted for the memorial should go out to wider consultation.
I believe that similar wording on the stone in the Memorial Garden had never been objected to.
The Omagh Memorial Working Group appointed by the council from various voluntary organisations, etc., then decided to embark on a very grandiose and expensive memorial project, which it believed would be valued and respected by the entire community, and would be sensitive to the healing process within the community.
The five short-listed designs, meant to link the bomb site with the Memorial Garden at Drumragh Avenue, have been on view in July in the new Strule Arts Centre, and are now being assessed by an expert panel.
From press reports, the total cost of the project is to be little short of one quarter of a million pounds.
No doubt the 'finished, product' will be eye-catching, and proportionately just as expensive.
I understand the members of the Support and Self Help Group withdrew from, the Memorial Working Group last year, because they were unhappy with the slow pace of the memorial project, and they could obtain no guarantee that the inscription on the winning piece of art work would be similar to the wording they had agreed for their plaque.
If they are unsuccessful here, some of the families have threatened to erect their own memorial, like others have done already in Omagh district, without obtaining council permission. They just want the people of Omagh district, and further afield, to be told the truth and for the sake of posterity as well, they rightly feel that the Working Group is endeavouring to massage the truth by the delaying tactics it has been adopting.
As a former chairman of the district council, I am rather saddened by the angst and rancour which have been generated for so long over this particular project. Had I been still a member of the council, I would have been asking why not a single councillor sitting on the Working Group, especially as it is the council that will be paying for the entire project.
It is rather strange that, since the controversy raised its ugly head, we haven't heard a cheep from a single councillor. I thought the council had much earlier agreed to the wording. If so, why then was it not acceptable to the Memorial Group set up by the council. If not, were any councillors ever asked their opinion?
It is simply intolerable, in my opinion, that these families - who are still hurting - should still have to experience such trauma after all they have been through since 1998, just because some people in Omagh are not prepared to accept the truth of the statement that 31 people were murdered and hundreds injured by a dissident republican terrorist bomb on August 15, 1998.
I just wonder how the erection of a costly piece of artwork could ever bring healing to a community, when the very folk most intimately involved - the victims' relatives from both communities - are so upset because of the way they feel they have been treated by a committee totally insensitive to their wishes.
These people have been fighting for justice, to put the perpetrators of the dastardly bomb blast behind bars for a very long time. This has been denied them so far, and their civil action may even have difficulty getting of the ground. No wonder they feel so frustrated especially when they believe a few responsible people in their own town have been attempting to thwart their efforts to put up a simple memorial on the spot where their loved ones died, or were very seriously injured.
They obviously are not in favour of any piece of art work the Working Group may plan to erect, unless the wording on it truly reflects what actually happened on the town's blackest day in history.
Yours,
Wilfred Breen, Hospital Road, Omagh
Sir,
I have already written at some length on the quite unnecessary delay the Omagh bomb victims' families have has to endure, before a suitable memorial can be erected in the in the town. They were once given to understand a stone would be put in place on the actual bomb site in Market Street, at the time the street refurbishment project was being completed. Most of your readers know the main reasons for the hold-up, and at this very sensitive time I do not wish to elaborate on all the details for those who are not aware of them.
I understand that the families had sought permission to erect a stone, just a simple memorial and all of them were in agreement with the brief inscription chosen to reflect the truth of what had actually taken place on August 15, 1998.
However, although the district council had given them an undertaking that the memorial would be erected in time for the opening of the street last year, it subsequently reneged on its promise, mainly because the leading party took exception to the wording that was to go on the stone.
When the then Victims Minister, Mr Hanson, was in the town last November - to open the �1.7million project, he was left in no doubt of the anger the relatives felt when told that the words they had submitted for the memorial should go out to wider consultation.
I believe that similar wording on the stone in the Memorial Garden had never been objected to.
The Omagh Memorial Working Group appointed by the council from various voluntary organisations, etc., then decided to embark on a very grandiose and expensive memorial project, which it believed would be valued and respected by the entire community, and would be sensitive to the healing process within the community.
The five short-listed designs, meant to link the bomb site with the Memorial Garden at Drumragh Avenue, have been on view in July in the new Strule Arts Centre, and are now being assessed by an expert panel.
From press reports, the total cost of the project is to be little short of one quarter of a million pounds.
No doubt the 'finished, product' will be eye-catching, and proportionately just as expensive.
I understand the members of the Support and Self Help Group withdrew from, the Memorial Working Group last year, because they were unhappy with the slow pace of the memorial project, and they could obtain no guarantee that the inscription on the winning piece of art work would be similar to the wording they had agreed for their plaque.
If they are unsuccessful here, some of the families have threatened to erect their own memorial, like others have done already in Omagh district, without obtaining council permission. They just want the people of Omagh district, and further afield, to be told the truth and for the sake of posterity as well, they rightly feel that the Working Group is endeavouring to massage the truth by the delaying tactics it has been adopting.
As a former chairman of the district council, I am rather saddened by the angst and rancour which have been generated for so long over this particular project. Had I been still a member of the council, I would have been asking why not a single councillor sitting on the Working Group, especially as it is the council that will be paying for the entire project.
It is rather strange that, since the controversy raised its ugly head, we haven't heard a cheep from a single councillor. I thought the council had much earlier agreed to the wording. If so, why then was it not acceptable to the Memorial Group set up by the council. If not, were any councillors ever asked their opinion?
It is simply intolerable, in my opinion, that these families - who are still hurting - should still have to experience such trauma after all they have been through since 1998, just because some people in Omagh are not prepared to accept the truth of the statement that 31 people were murdered and hundreds injured by a dissident republican terrorist bomb on August 15, 1998.
I just wonder how the erection of a costly piece of artwork could ever bring healing to a community, when the very folk most intimately involved - the victims' relatives from both communities - are so upset because of the way they feel they have been treated by a committee totally insensitive to their wishes.
These people have been fighting for justice, to put the perpetrators of the dastardly bomb blast behind bars for a very long time. This has been denied them so far, and their civil action may even have difficulty getting of the ground. No wonder they feel so frustrated especially when they believe a few responsible people in their own town have been attempting to thwart their efforts to put up a simple memorial on the spot where their loved ones died, or were very seriously injured.
They obviously are not in favour of any piece of art work the Working Group may plan to erect, unless the wording on it truly reflects what actually happened on the town's blackest day in history.
Yours,
Wilfred Breen, Hospital Road, Omagh
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE CONSTITUTION
Ref: TC/1891
Published Date: 16-Aug-07
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