CAN WE NOW TURN THE CORNER
CAN WE NOW TURN THE CORNER?
Time, they say, is the best healer, but, others would say, there are some wounds you just cannot heal. Who is to say how long the proverbial piece of string is? One thing is certain though. The human spirit has an innate ability, when staring in the face of adversity, to salvage the remaining shred of sanity when it appears the rest of the world has gone mad.
The saddest day in Omagh's history was five years ago on August 15. The Real IRA bomb ripped through the heart of the town and the hearts of countless people from as far away as Donegal and Spain. Everyone was affected in some way.
Five years have passed and we will take time to reflect on that awful day now on the anniversary. No words can describe the wound left open in Omagh that day and no one can say if it will ever heal but one thing is for sure, five years have passed. That is, Omagh is five years away from that fateful day and five years into a future some of us thought too unbearable to contemplate.
An observer from Enniskillen once said he thought it took seven years before he noticed a turning point in the psyche of the Fermanagh town following the IRA bomb that killed 11 people there in 1987. It took at least seven years to rebuild the bricks and mortar and the prosperity of the town, seven years for the media attention to wane, to rebuild the severed relationships, and the weakened resilience of the community, and seven years before people thought it was OK for them to move on.
Enniskillen is still remembering and still utilising the experience of 1987 to impress the notions of peace, education, tolerance and hope while never forgetting how and why the Enniskillen Bomb happened. It was only two years ago that former US President, Bill Clinton opened the Clinton Peace Centre, a university campus on the site of the bomb in the town where now, pupils from north and south, Catholics and Protestants, are taking courses in conflict studies, history and politics, among other things.
On this anniversary it is important to look at what positive things have been achieved in Omagh since the bomb.
In the aftermath of the Real-IRA bomb here, the Irish Government introduced new legislation which made 'directing terrorism' a criminal offence. Michael McKevitt, the man believed to be the head of the Real-IRA, became the first person to be charged and convicted under the new law last week. Since 1998 the dissident republican group has executed several bomb attacks but police in Northern Ireland, the Republic and Britain claim to have thwarted several planned strikes, uncovered safe houses, confiscated weapons and made arrests.
The Omagh bomb provoked in people from both sides of the community, an abhorrence for violence and the sentiment that 'enough is enough'. Speaking before the IRA Ceasefire in 1994 Mother Theresa of Calcutta said it was apparent to her that humanity had not witnessed enough suffering because if people had witnessed what she saw in war torn and famine-riddled countries, they simply would not allow it to happen. People in Northern Ireland had watched 30 years of violence, each attack worse than the last. Omagh, however, was the final nail in the coffin for terror groups who had used violence in the names of ordinary people. It didn't need to happen but maybe now we can make sure it never happens again.
Other elements of the Omagh community have drawn on the experiences of August, 15 1998 to try to salvage something positive from the otherwise worst day in Omagh's history.
Time, they say, is the best healer, but, others would say, there are some wounds you just cannot heal. Who is to say how long the proverbial piece of string is? One thing is certain though. The human spirit has an innate ability, when staring in the face of adversity, to salvage the remaining shred of sanity when it appears the rest of the world has gone mad.
The saddest day in Omagh's history was five years ago on August 15. The Real IRA bomb ripped through the heart of the town and the hearts of countless people from as far away as Donegal and Spain. Everyone was affected in some way.
Five years have passed and we will take time to reflect on that awful day now on the anniversary. No words can describe the wound left open in Omagh that day and no one can say if it will ever heal but one thing is for sure, five years have passed. That is, Omagh is five years away from that fateful day and five years into a future some of us thought too unbearable to contemplate.
An observer from Enniskillen once said he thought it took seven years before he noticed a turning point in the psyche of the Fermanagh town following the IRA bomb that killed 11 people there in 1987. It took at least seven years to rebuild the bricks and mortar and the prosperity of the town, seven years for the media attention to wane, to rebuild the severed relationships, and the weakened resilience of the community, and seven years before people thought it was OK for them to move on.
Enniskillen is still remembering and still utilising the experience of 1987 to impress the notions of peace, education, tolerance and hope while never forgetting how and why the Enniskillen Bomb happened. It was only two years ago that former US President, Bill Clinton opened the Clinton Peace Centre, a university campus on the site of the bomb in the town where now, pupils from north and south, Catholics and Protestants, are taking courses in conflict studies, history and politics, among other things.
On this anniversary it is important to look at what positive things have been achieved in Omagh since the bomb.
In the aftermath of the Real-IRA bomb here, the Irish Government introduced new legislation which made 'directing terrorism' a criminal offence. Michael McKevitt, the man believed to be the head of the Real-IRA, became the first person to be charged and convicted under the new law last week. Since 1998 the dissident republican group has executed several bomb attacks but police in Northern Ireland, the Republic and Britain claim to have thwarted several planned strikes, uncovered safe houses, confiscated weapons and made arrests.
The Omagh bomb provoked in people from both sides of the community, an abhorrence for violence and the sentiment that 'enough is enough'. Speaking before the IRA Ceasefire in 1994 Mother Theresa of Calcutta said it was apparent to her that humanity had not witnessed enough suffering because if people had witnessed what she saw in war torn and famine-riddled countries, they simply would not allow it to happen. People in Northern Ireland had watched 30 years of violence, each attack worse than the last. Omagh, however, was the final nail in the coffin for terror groups who had used violence in the names of ordinary people. It didn't need to happen but maybe now we can make sure it never happens again.
Other elements of the Omagh community have drawn on the experiences of August, 15 1998 to try to salvage something positive from the otherwise worst day in Omagh's history.
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/1559
Published Date: 14-Aug-03
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