OMAGH HORROR RELIVED BY SPANISH TEACHER
Omagh horror relived by Spanish teacher
BY JOHN CARNEY
THE horror Paola Mahon endured during the Omagh bomb was relived for a second time last week when bombs tore her own hometown apart.
Paola lost her assistant and a pupil in the Omagh atrocity and looked on in terror last week from her home in Madrid, as similar scenes of carnage flashed across her television screen.
"My heart froze when the pictures of the bombs started coming in, all the memories of what happened in Omagh came flooding back," Paola said.
"It was on a much larger scale but just as tragic and shocking. It was like a horrible flashback but what I know is that the people in Madrid will respond to the tragedy with the same solidarity as the people of Omagh.
"Like Omagh, there are so many people trying to help and give support. Yet there are so many lives gone and so much sorrow to come to terms with.
"All day you could hear the ambulance sirens screaming. I could only imagine what scenes there must have been. Thousands of people are going to the 16 hospitals in Madrid to the wards and morgues trying to find loved ones."
Paola, who lives in Madrid with her Roscommon husband Peter, helped organise the trip to Omagh in 1998 and arrived on the scene shortly after the blast.
She had the unthinkable task of having to identify the bodies of her student Fernando Blasis Baselga, 12, and her assistant Rocia Abad Ramos, 23. Mrs Mahon's own niece was also badly injured in the bombing. Beatriz Beuch, 17, was in a coma for a month but made a full recovery and is now living Madrid.
Luckily, Paola had no friends or relations that were involved in the Madrid bombing but a stroke of luck saved one from certain injury.
"My nephew was at University that day but did not go on the train. If he had he would surely have been hurt because he always takes the one that was bombed," she said.
"But it doesn't stop me or my family reliving all that happened in Omagh. My sister Ahnudena is Beatriz Beuch's mother, and she phoned me when all this was going on in Madrid to say that she couldn't believe that something like this was happening again.
"But already people from Omagh have phoned me and my sister to make sure that ourselves and our families are safe.
"When my sister had to stay in Belfast for a month when Beatriz was in a coma she stayed with a family called Mulholland. Their hospitality and kindness was unbelievable, and they were straight on the phone to her when they saw Madrid on the news.
"Many people from Omagh have done the same and contacted us, which shows what the people of Omagh are capable of. Even now they think about us and it is something that we will never forget."
Paola also revealed that they had seen on television the special memorial service from Omagh to commemorate the dead in Madrid, and that it typified the close bond her country had with Tyrone's county town.
"I knew of it because of Father Shane Bradley, who I keep contact with and who is originally from Fintona," she said.
"He was based in Buncrana during the Omagh bomb and I would always meet him when I travelled there. He emailed me about it and told me that everyone was thinking of them. It's just another example of how people in Omagh and the surrounding areas care.
BY JOHN CARNEY
THE horror Paola Mahon endured during the Omagh bomb was relived for a second time last week when bombs tore her own hometown apart.
Paola lost her assistant and a pupil in the Omagh atrocity and looked on in terror last week from her home in Madrid, as similar scenes of carnage flashed across her television screen.
"My heart froze when the pictures of the bombs started coming in, all the memories of what happened in Omagh came flooding back," Paola said.
"It was on a much larger scale but just as tragic and shocking. It was like a horrible flashback but what I know is that the people in Madrid will respond to the tragedy with the same solidarity as the people of Omagh.
"Like Omagh, there are so many people trying to help and give support. Yet there are so many lives gone and so much sorrow to come to terms with.
"All day you could hear the ambulance sirens screaming. I could only imagine what scenes there must have been. Thousands of people are going to the 16 hospitals in Madrid to the wards and morgues trying to find loved ones."
Paola, who lives in Madrid with her Roscommon husband Peter, helped organise the trip to Omagh in 1998 and arrived on the scene shortly after the blast.
She had the unthinkable task of having to identify the bodies of her student Fernando Blasis Baselga, 12, and her assistant Rocia Abad Ramos, 23. Mrs Mahon's own niece was also badly injured in the bombing. Beatriz Beuch, 17, was in a coma for a month but made a full recovery and is now living Madrid.
Luckily, Paola had no friends or relations that were involved in the Madrid bombing but a stroke of luck saved one from certain injury.
"My nephew was at University that day but did not go on the train. If he had he would surely have been hurt because he always takes the one that was bombed," she said.
"But it doesn't stop me or my family reliving all that happened in Omagh. My sister Ahnudena is Beatriz Beuch's mother, and she phoned me when all this was going on in Madrid to say that she couldn't believe that something like this was happening again.
"But already people from Omagh have phoned me and my sister to make sure that ourselves and our families are safe.
"When my sister had to stay in Belfast for a month when Beatriz was in a coma she stayed with a family called Mulholland. Their hospitality and kindness was unbelievable, and they were straight on the phone to her when they saw Madrid on the news.
"Many people from Omagh have done the same and contacted us, which shows what the people of Omagh are capable of. Even now they think about us and it is something that we will never forget."
Paola also revealed that they had seen on television the special memorial service from Omagh to commemorate the dead in Madrid, and that it typified the close bond her country had with Tyrone's county town.
"I knew of it because of Father Shane Bradley, who I keep contact with and who is originally from Fintona," she said.
"He was based in Buncrana during the Omagh bomb and I would always meet him when I travelled there. He emailed me about it and told me that everyone was thinking of them. It's just another example of how people in Omagh and the surrounding areas care.
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/1645
Published Date: 18-Mar-04
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