FILM OMAGH WILL HURT MANY SO SOON AFTER TRAGEDY
Film 'Omagh' will hurt many people so soon after tragedy
I write to ask how many of the residents of Omagh and District are happy with the prospect of seeing a dramatisation of the Omagh bomb and its aftermath which, following the success of the Bloody Sunday film is due to be released before the end of the year, for I understand, world consumption.
In the first place, just how many of them even knew that such a bombshell was soon to descend on the good people of the town?
It would be interesting to know how many of the influential people in the district, e.g. councillors, doctors, clergymen etc, also other hospital staff like nurses and ambulance men, were consulted about the project. What about the relatives of victims and those still bearing the scars of their terrible injuries?
How many of them were prepared to give their blessing to a film depicting their own trauma that fateful August afternoon just over five years ago, even if it dealt with all the comings and goings afterwards and the efforts of the Victims Support Group to obtain justice for the townsfolk?
Certainly not a grieving husband I was speaking to briefly during the BBC TV 'Questiontime' transmission from the Omagh Leisure Complex. Certainly not a lady I know personally who lost both her husband and son as they made their way from the Salad Bowl fruit shop to the car park. Most certainly not the Tyrone lady who happened to stray onto the set on a Navan town street "dressed up" to look like Market Street, Omagh.
I feel that a large majority of the people of this town and the surrounding district would greatly resent this intrusion. Who, I wonder encouraged this film company to proceed with the making of the film, for which they hoped no doubt to make a pot of money? After all, it is only a little over five years since the tragedy occurred. Even the Bloody Sunday film wasn't made until 30 years had elapsed. One is bound to commend the efforts of those who are trying to seek justice, but the Omagh story seems to be seldom out of the news.
There certainly hasn't been the same determination to be 'immortalised' by the families of those who suffered at the Enniskillen cenotaph,
Le Mon hotel, Teebane Crossroads and in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. The BBC political commentator Eric Waugh in his 'Talkback' broadcast expressed surprise at a film being made so close to the date of the actual event.
No doubt the film will have been carefully scripted, the set technically sound and the acting of a high standard. That said, and even if all the perpetrators were eventually to be brought to book and the guilt or innocence of both governments and law enforcement agencies etc. firmly established, I strongly feel that the events in Omagh were so appalling and so harrowing that very few of the families and indeed the general public would even wish to be reminded of them, certainly not for a generation at least.
Perhaps some of the readers who share my views, or who may take the opposite viewpoint re. the morality or otherwise of the making of this film now or even 20 years later, might care to express their opinions in the correspondence columns of your paper.
Wilfred Breen
Former Town Councillor
I write to ask how many of the residents of Omagh and District are happy with the prospect of seeing a dramatisation of the Omagh bomb and its aftermath which, following the success of the Bloody Sunday film is due to be released before the end of the year, for I understand, world consumption.
In the first place, just how many of them even knew that such a bombshell was soon to descend on the good people of the town?
It would be interesting to know how many of the influential people in the district, e.g. councillors, doctors, clergymen etc, also other hospital staff like nurses and ambulance men, were consulted about the project. What about the relatives of victims and those still bearing the scars of their terrible injuries?
How many of them were prepared to give their blessing to a film depicting their own trauma that fateful August afternoon just over five years ago, even if it dealt with all the comings and goings afterwards and the efforts of the Victims Support Group to obtain justice for the townsfolk?
Certainly not a grieving husband I was speaking to briefly during the BBC TV 'Questiontime' transmission from the Omagh Leisure Complex. Certainly not a lady I know personally who lost both her husband and son as they made their way from the Salad Bowl fruit shop to the car park. Most certainly not the Tyrone lady who happened to stray onto the set on a Navan town street "dressed up" to look like Market Street, Omagh.
I feel that a large majority of the people of this town and the surrounding district would greatly resent this intrusion. Who, I wonder encouraged this film company to proceed with the making of the film, for which they hoped no doubt to make a pot of money? After all, it is only a little over five years since the tragedy occurred. Even the Bloody Sunday film wasn't made until 30 years had elapsed. One is bound to commend the efforts of those who are trying to seek justice, but the Omagh story seems to be seldom out of the news.
There certainly hasn't been the same determination to be 'immortalised' by the families of those who suffered at the Enniskillen cenotaph,
Le Mon hotel, Teebane Crossroads and in the Dublin and Monaghan bombings. The BBC political commentator Eric Waugh in his 'Talkback' broadcast expressed surprise at a film being made so close to the date of the actual event.
No doubt the film will have been carefully scripted, the set technically sound and the acting of a high standard. That said, and even if all the perpetrators were eventually to be brought to book and the guilt or innocence of both governments and law enforcement agencies etc. firmly established, I strongly feel that the events in Omagh were so appalling and so harrowing that very few of the families and indeed the general public would even wish to be reminded of them, certainly not for a generation at least.
Perhaps some of the readers who share my views, or who may take the opposite viewpoint re. the morality or otherwise of the making of this film now or even 20 years later, might care to express their opinions in the correspondence columns of your paper.
Wilfred Breen
Former Town Councillor
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/1633
Published Date: 05-Feb-04
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