DUNDALK EVENT REMEMBERS OMAGH VICTIMS
Dundalk event remembers Omagh victims
BY: MICHELE CANNING
THE FATHER of one of the Omagh bomb victims called for peace when he addressed an audience in Dundalk on Monday night as part of a Week of Remembrance in the Co. Louth town.
'A Time for Peace Week' Remembering Omagh was organised to regenerate interest in the town and to gain momentum for peace at ground level, said Michael Gallagher, whose 21 year old son Adrian was killed in the blast.
He said Dundalk had emerged with a tarnished image after the Omagh bombing, despite the fact that it had staged the largest demonstration for peace, outside of Omagh, in the wake of the blast.
On Monday, Michael Gallagher and Stanley McCombe, who lost his wife Anne, travelled to Co. Louth with the Omagh Community Choir.
In his address, Michael Gallagher said "Hopefully, we can move along the road of peace together and put an end to this evil, so that people can live normal lives, where the noise of bombs and bullets no longer shatter the lives of children playing and people shopping.
"We are again seeing this drip of death starting and this must not be allowed to continue until another atrocity happens.
"We must look for a new way forward. We need to have faith that change will work.
"Finally friends, change takes courage. It is not easy to forgive or be forgiven. We can ignore our shortcomings or we can try desperately to make up for them.
"What is more difficult is to accept and forget them. What seems like getting away with our own failings becomes on closer inspection the sealing of a circle where we see each other for the frail human beings we really are.
"It is only then that instead of competing for justice we call out to each other. This must be the time for peace," he added.
BY: MICHELE CANNING
THE FATHER of one of the Omagh bomb victims called for peace when he addressed an audience in Dundalk on Monday night as part of a Week of Remembrance in the Co. Louth town.
'A Time for Peace Week' Remembering Omagh was organised to regenerate interest in the town and to gain momentum for peace at ground level, said Michael Gallagher, whose 21 year old son Adrian was killed in the blast.
He said Dundalk had emerged with a tarnished image after the Omagh bombing, despite the fact that it had staged the largest demonstration for peace, outside of Omagh, in the wake of the blast.
On Monday, Michael Gallagher and Stanley McCombe, who lost his wife Anne, travelled to Co. Louth with the Omagh Community Choir.
In his address, Michael Gallagher said "Hopefully, we can move along the road of peace together and put an end to this evil, so that people can live normal lives, where the noise of bombs and bullets no longer shatter the lives of children playing and people shopping.
"We are again seeing this drip of death starting and this must not be allowed to continue until another atrocity happens.
"We must look for a new way forward. We need to have faith that change will work.
"Finally friends, change takes courage. It is not easy to forgive or be forgiven. We can ignore our shortcomings or we can try desperately to make up for them.
"What is more difficult is to accept and forget them. What seems like getting away with our own failings becomes on closer inspection the sealing of a circle where we see each other for the frail human beings we really are.
"It is only then that instead of competing for justice we call out to each other. This must be the time for peace," he added.
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/1238
Published Date: 25-Mar-99
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