DUBLIN SNUBS O'LOAN
Dublin snubs O'Loan Omagh families furious over Nally Report
BY JACQUELINE COURTNEY
POLICING Ombusdsman Nuala O'Loan was frozen out of the investigation she requested into possible garda failings over the Omagh bomb. Justice Minister Michael McDowell said this week that the allegations she brought to him were "unfounded," although he refused to publish the report or substantiate his Dail pronouncement on its findings.
Mrs O'Loan, meanwhile, confirmed to the Ulster Herald yesterday, that she had no communication from Dublin on the matter since she met the Nally Tribunal in mid-2002.
Meanwhile, angry relatives of Omagh bomb victims have called for a proper independent cross-border inquiry into allegations that gardai withheld information from the RUC before the 1998 Real IRA bomb attack.
The families made the call after Justice Minister Michael McDowell revealed that the Nally Report, which would not be made public, found no evidence of impropriety on the part of gardai. Omagh relatives have labelled the decision as a major cover-up by the Government.
The UlsterHerald was told yesterday (Wednesday) by the Ombudsman's office that Mrs O'Loan has not been privy to any of the top secret document - although she requested the investigation. Since July 2002, when she and her senior investigators met Dermot Nally and his tribunal, there has been no further contact from the Irish Government on the matter.
She and her team confess to being unaware of how the report was dealt with or how the investigation was carried out.
Meanwhile, allegations of garda inaction in the Omagh bombing, ministerial interference in the judicial process and unlawful conduct by senior garda officers? were all written off by the inquiry as "without foundation". Minister McDowell also announced to the Dail his decision not to publish the report saying it contained information which "would be of use only to paramilitary terrorists in waging their campaign".
However, Kevin Skelton, who lost his wife Philomena in the bombing, expressed his outrage at the latest development. Calling it a 'cover-up,' he said there were "more reports going on in the South of Ireland than bombs going off in Iraq".
"The whole thing is a sham," he added. "But what did happen does not surprise me one bit. I did not expect anything different. We met Minister for Foreign Affairs) Brian Cowan back in October 2002 and he told us the report would be out within a fortnight.
"It's a cover-up and, as far as I am concerned, the three individuals appointed by the Irish Government to investigate this were not independent. One was the public prosecutor for the South in 1998, around the time of the Omagh bomb. He was, in fact, the head of the DPP. Those people are not independent; they are government officials who do what the government wants them to do," said Mr Skelton.
"We fought hard to get Nuala O'Loan appointed here to oversee elements within the RUC/PSNI and the South should have had someone independent like her.
"They don't want to face up to the truth and the only way we can get the truth is through a full cross-border inquiry."
Mr Skelton also hit out at the long promised Dail statement on the report at a time when he said, "the whole world media is focussed on Saddam Hussein and the English schoolgirls' murder trial."
"They just slipped this in so it would be quietly dealt with. But we are not going to take this lying down," vowed a determined Mr Skelton.
It had been claimed that days before the Omagh bombing, Paddy Dixon, an informant for the Garda Special Branch passed on information about a car stolen by dissident republicans to his handler, a Dublin based garda.
Suspended Donegal Detective Sergeant John White told Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan that gardai failed to relay this intelligence to the RUC, even though the informer had stolen cars previously used in dissident republican bombings in the North.
On Mrs O'Loan's request, a three-man team led by senior civil servant Dermot Nally was appointed by the Irish government to investigate the claims. The tribunal was also asked to investigate a suggestion that the government negotiated a ceasefire pact with the Real IRA after the bombing and interfered in the judicial process.
Meanwhile, spokesman for the relatives Stanley McCombe said he was "very disappointed but not surprised" by the minister's statement.
He said that relatives would only be satisfied with the findings of an investigation team that was independent of the Irish state.
"We need to take this to Europe. The state was basically investigating itself," Mr McCombe said.
Victor Barker, the English solicitor whose 12-year-old son Jamie was among the 31 lives lost in the bombing, pointed out that the report examining the allegations was originally scheduled for release last March.
"We were then promised a release in October of this year, and now a statement is being made in the Dail in December," he said. "Why has it taken all this time to come up with a conclusion of a report which basically denies all the allegations that have been made?
"None of the relatives have been given the opportunity to see the report, and I find that not only astounding but extremely disturbing."
BY JACQUELINE COURTNEY
POLICING Ombusdsman Nuala O'Loan was frozen out of the investigation she requested into possible garda failings over the Omagh bomb. Justice Minister Michael McDowell said this week that the allegations she brought to him were "unfounded," although he refused to publish the report or substantiate his Dail pronouncement on its findings.
Mrs O'Loan, meanwhile, confirmed to the Ulster Herald yesterday, that she had no communication from Dublin on the matter since she met the Nally Tribunal in mid-2002.
Meanwhile, angry relatives of Omagh bomb victims have called for a proper independent cross-border inquiry into allegations that gardai withheld information from the RUC before the 1998 Real IRA bomb attack.
The families made the call after Justice Minister Michael McDowell revealed that the Nally Report, which would not be made public, found no evidence of impropriety on the part of gardai. Omagh relatives have labelled the decision as a major cover-up by the Government.
The UlsterHerald was told yesterday (Wednesday) by the Ombudsman's office that Mrs O'Loan has not been privy to any of the top secret document - although she requested the investigation. Since July 2002, when she and her senior investigators met Dermot Nally and his tribunal, there has been no further contact from the Irish Government on the matter.
She and her team confess to being unaware of how the report was dealt with or how the investigation was carried out.
Meanwhile, allegations of garda inaction in the Omagh bombing, ministerial interference in the judicial process and unlawful conduct by senior garda officers? were all written off by the inquiry as "without foundation". Minister McDowell also announced to the Dail his decision not to publish the report saying it contained information which "would be of use only to paramilitary terrorists in waging their campaign".
However, Kevin Skelton, who lost his wife Philomena in the bombing, expressed his outrage at the latest development. Calling it a 'cover-up,' he said there were "more reports going on in the South of Ireland than bombs going off in Iraq".
"The whole thing is a sham," he added. "But what did happen does not surprise me one bit. I did not expect anything different. We met Minister for Foreign Affairs) Brian Cowan back in October 2002 and he told us the report would be out within a fortnight.
"It's a cover-up and, as far as I am concerned, the three individuals appointed by the Irish Government to investigate this were not independent. One was the public prosecutor for the South in 1998, around the time of the Omagh bomb. He was, in fact, the head of the DPP. Those people are not independent; they are government officials who do what the government wants them to do," said Mr Skelton.
"We fought hard to get Nuala O'Loan appointed here to oversee elements within the RUC/PSNI and the South should have had someone independent like her.
"They don't want to face up to the truth and the only way we can get the truth is through a full cross-border inquiry."
Mr Skelton also hit out at the long promised Dail statement on the report at a time when he said, "the whole world media is focussed on Saddam Hussein and the English schoolgirls' murder trial."
"They just slipped this in so it would be quietly dealt with. But we are not going to take this lying down," vowed a determined Mr Skelton.
It had been claimed that days before the Omagh bombing, Paddy Dixon, an informant for the Garda Special Branch passed on information about a car stolen by dissident republicans to his handler, a Dublin based garda.
Suspended Donegal Detective Sergeant John White told Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan that gardai failed to relay this intelligence to the RUC, even though the informer had stolen cars previously used in dissident republican bombings in the North.
On Mrs O'Loan's request, a three-man team led by senior civil servant Dermot Nally was appointed by the Irish government to investigate the claims. The tribunal was also asked to investigate a suggestion that the government negotiated a ceasefire pact with the Real IRA after the bombing and interfered in the judicial process.
Meanwhile, spokesman for the relatives Stanley McCombe said he was "very disappointed but not surprised" by the minister's statement.
He said that relatives would only be satisfied with the findings of an investigation team that was independent of the Irish state.
"We need to take this to Europe. The state was basically investigating itself," Mr McCombe said.
Victor Barker, the English solicitor whose 12-year-old son Jamie was among the 31 lives lost in the bombing, pointed out that the report examining the allegations was originally scheduled for release last March.
"We were then promised a release in October of this year, and now a statement is being made in the Dail in December," he said. "Why has it taken all this time to come up with a conclusion of a report which basically denies all the allegations that have been made?
"None of the relatives have been given the opportunity to see the report, and I find that not only astounding but extremely disturbing."
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/1624
Published Date: 18-Dec-03
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