LIVING WITH THE OMAGH LEGACY
Living with the Omagh legacy
Bomb victims reflect on life after atrocity
It's 10 years since the Real IRA car bomb exploded in Omagh on Saturday, August 15,1998. It was the worst single atrocity in the history of the North's conflict, claiming 31 victims, including two unborn twins, and injuring more than 300.
BBC Northern Ireland is to mark this anniversary with two special documentaries over two nights.
Omagh - The Legacy was first screened in 1999 and will be shown on Wednesday, August 13 on BBC One NI at 10.45pm.
Filmed over eight months and made by Iain Webster of Network Media for BBC NI, the documentary followed the courageous and often heartbreaking struggle back to health of two of the many young people who were injured.
Claire Gallagher (15) from Omagh lost her sight in the explosion and nine-year-old Stephen Coyle from Strabane suffered massive internal injuries and lost a major part of his shoulder. He faced more than a dozen operations.
The-film catalogued the weeks of pain and the long road back to health for both young people.
Now, to mark the 10th anniversary of the bomb, Iain Webster has revisited Claire and Stephen to see how they have coped over the years.
Omagh -The Legacy: Ten Years On is on Thursday, August 14 on BBC One Northern Ireland at 10.35pm.
Claire was in Omagh with her school friends on the day her life changed forever. She now works as a counsellor with the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNTB) helping
Omagh bomb survivor Stephen Coyle (19) and his father Francis from Strabane. Stephen and other survivors will feature on two BBC documentaries that will be broadcast to mark the 10th anniversary of the atrocity.
people whose sight is failing. She talks openly about coming to terms with her loss of sight following the explosion.
Claire said, "I've tried to make the most of my life and I know that other people have found it very difficult and are still finding it very difficult to come to terms with everything. Everybody just has their way of coping and my way of coping is to get on with it."
BBC NI gained exclusive access to the biggest day of Claire's life - her marriage to her fiance Ryan last October.
Strabane's Stephen Coyle and his girlfriend returned to the bomb scene last month. His memories of the day remain as vivid as ever.
He recalls, "I was just stepping off the kerb, the next minute there was a flash and I was up in the air and it was like a flash of heat. And I was thrown about the place. And I remember things were coming into my body. It was like someone shooting you with a BB gun. You just feel like you're getting hit all over."
After 10 years Stephen's injuries are mostly healed. He is now a keen cyclist competing regularly in competitions.
He adds, "If I stop training for a while, I seem to get a sore arm more often but when I'm training it seems to be fine. It does help you.
"It's like freedom, you can take yourself places. Just to feel you can do something you feel proud that you were able to achieve, something that other people might not be able to achieve or won't try."
Stephen is now learning to fly and has his heart set on becoming a commercial pilot. He explains, "When I was out of hospital in 1999 the RAF flew me in a helicopter over Omagh. I was really impressed and that's what made me think about flying as a career.
Also featured in the documentary are moving interviews with the families of Fernando Blasco Baselga (12) from Spain and James Barker, also 12, whose family had moved from England to Buncrana in search of a better quality of Me.
Manuel Blasco was hurt in a terrorist bomb attack in Madrid in 1992 but never thought his son Fernando faced any risk when he sent him and his brother and sister to Ireland in 1998 to improve their English.
Fernando was one of two Spanish people killed in the Omagh explosion.
When asked, during an interview at their home in Spain, whether he felt his son's death had played a part in the Peace Process, Manuel Blasco replied, "Not Fernando's death itself. But the fact that there was a terrorist attack with that number of deaths, and the amount of suffering and damage caused by it, made the two sides in Ireland react.
"As a result everything has been calming down gradually and it doesn't seem that Ireland is in a process of terror now, as it was, not long ago."
Fernando's mother Lucrecia Baselga recalls, "I read the newspapers at the airport as I left for Belfast. They said a Spanish person was missing and he was likely to be dead. I didn't want to think it was my son.
"When I arrived in Northern Ireland they took us to a room at the airport and they told me Fernando was dead. It's like being tortured, like someone ripping away a part of you. My daughter Lucrecia was injured and in hospital and we had to be strong for her."
Both documentaries are narrated by Liam Neeson.
o Omagh - The Legacy is on Wednesday, August 13 on BBC One Northern Ireland at 10.45pm and Omagh - The Legacy: Ten Years On is on Thursday, August 14 on B3C One Northern Ireland at 10.35pm.
Bomb victims reflect on life after atrocity
It's 10 years since the Real IRA car bomb exploded in Omagh on Saturday, August 15,1998. It was the worst single atrocity in the history of the North's conflict, claiming 31 victims, including two unborn twins, and injuring more than 300.
BBC Northern Ireland is to mark this anniversary with two special documentaries over two nights.
Omagh - The Legacy was first screened in 1999 and will be shown on Wednesday, August 13 on BBC One NI at 10.45pm.
Filmed over eight months and made by Iain Webster of Network Media for BBC NI, the documentary followed the courageous and often heartbreaking struggle back to health of two of the many young people who were injured.
Claire Gallagher (15) from Omagh lost her sight in the explosion and nine-year-old Stephen Coyle from Strabane suffered massive internal injuries and lost a major part of his shoulder. He faced more than a dozen operations.
The-film catalogued the weeks of pain and the long road back to health for both young people.
Now, to mark the 10th anniversary of the bomb, Iain Webster has revisited Claire and Stephen to see how they have coped over the years.
Omagh -The Legacy: Ten Years On is on Thursday, August 14 on BBC One Northern Ireland at 10.35pm.
Claire was in Omagh with her school friends on the day her life changed forever. She now works as a counsellor with the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNTB) helping
Omagh bomb survivor Stephen Coyle (19) and his father Francis from Strabane. Stephen and other survivors will feature on two BBC documentaries that will be broadcast to mark the 10th anniversary of the atrocity.
people whose sight is failing. She talks openly about coming to terms with her loss of sight following the explosion.
Claire said, "I've tried to make the most of my life and I know that other people have found it very difficult and are still finding it very difficult to come to terms with everything. Everybody just has their way of coping and my way of coping is to get on with it."
BBC NI gained exclusive access to the biggest day of Claire's life - her marriage to her fiance Ryan last October.
Strabane's Stephen Coyle and his girlfriend returned to the bomb scene last month. His memories of the day remain as vivid as ever.
He recalls, "I was just stepping off the kerb, the next minute there was a flash and I was up in the air and it was like a flash of heat. And I was thrown about the place. And I remember things were coming into my body. It was like someone shooting you with a BB gun. You just feel like you're getting hit all over."
After 10 years Stephen's injuries are mostly healed. He is now a keen cyclist competing regularly in competitions.
He adds, "If I stop training for a while, I seem to get a sore arm more often but when I'm training it seems to be fine. It does help you.
"It's like freedom, you can take yourself places. Just to feel you can do something you feel proud that you were able to achieve, something that other people might not be able to achieve or won't try."
Stephen is now learning to fly and has his heart set on becoming a commercial pilot. He explains, "When I was out of hospital in 1999 the RAF flew me in a helicopter over Omagh. I was really impressed and that's what made me think about flying as a career.
Also featured in the documentary are moving interviews with the families of Fernando Blasco Baselga (12) from Spain and James Barker, also 12, whose family had moved from England to Buncrana in search of a better quality of Me.
Manuel Blasco was hurt in a terrorist bomb attack in Madrid in 1992 but never thought his son Fernando faced any risk when he sent him and his brother and sister to Ireland in 1998 to improve their English.
Fernando was one of two Spanish people killed in the Omagh explosion.
When asked, during an interview at their home in Spain, whether he felt his son's death had played a part in the Peace Process, Manuel Blasco replied, "Not Fernando's death itself. But the fact that there was a terrorist attack with that number of deaths, and the amount of suffering and damage caused by it, made the two sides in Ireland react.
"As a result everything has been calming down gradually and it doesn't seem that Ireland is in a process of terror now, as it was, not long ago."
Fernando's mother Lucrecia Baselga recalls, "I read the newspapers at the airport as I left for Belfast. They said a Spanish person was missing and he was likely to be dead. I didn't want to think it was my son.
"When I arrived in Northern Ireland they took us to a room at the airport and they told me Fernando was dead. It's like being tortured, like someone ripping away a part of you. My daughter Lucrecia was injured and in hospital and we had to be strong for her."
Both documentaries are narrated by Liam Neeson.
o Omagh - The Legacy is on Wednesday, August 13 on BBC One Northern Ireland at 10.45pm and Omagh - The Legacy: Ten Years On is on Thursday, August 14 on B3C One Northern Ireland at 10.35pm.
Further Information
Publisher: TYRONE HERALD
Ref: TYH10An/01
Published Date: 04-Aug-08
Related Images
