COMPETITION FOR A NEW BOMB MEMORIAL IS A POINTLESS EXERCISE
Competition for a new bomb memorial is pointless exercise
I and my family wish to disassociate ourselves from the meeting at the Omagh District Council (ODC) offices with members of ODC and His Excellency Carlos Mirando y Elio, Spanish Ambassador of Spain to the United Kingdom. We refused that invitation by our absence. With apologies to his Excellency, it was a pointless exercise.
I wish also to set the record straight that I and my family are the guardians of my late wife Libby's memory, image and all that embodies without interference from all others, including those involved in any competition. The competition for a new memorial is completely ignorant and outrageous, and is sadly oblivious to the grief suffered on that fateful day of the Omagh bombing in 1998.
To explain, I received a Project Brief from the Memorial Fund, along with an invitation mentioned above. The brief explained that the Omagh Bomb Memorial Fund was running a competition for another memorial design. Why do we need another memorial? It will just bring more sadness. I am happy with the existing garden. I only have some question about the wording on the granite obelisk which could be less contentious. It is more important that we pursue truth and justice.
I'm also concerned by paragraph 18 of the Project Brief stating that the design teams will retain copyright of their designs, but that they will allow reproduction of images and that the Memorial Working Group and its agents will have the right to use it for photographic public relations/information purposes. One wonders are they considering this not as a healing exercise but more like a tourist attraction.
Finally, I have stated in previous letters is that a more positive and lasting memorial to those lost loved ones would be an annual bursary/scholarship open to all and embracing the arts, commerce, law, etc.
Laurence Rush
Omagh
I and my family wish to disassociate ourselves from the meeting at the Omagh District Council (ODC) offices with members of ODC and His Excellency Carlos Mirando y Elio, Spanish Ambassador of Spain to the United Kingdom. We refused that invitation by our absence. With apologies to his Excellency, it was a pointless exercise.
I wish also to set the record straight that I and my family are the guardians of my late wife Libby's memory, image and all that embodies without interference from all others, including those involved in any competition. The competition for a new memorial is completely ignorant and outrageous, and is sadly oblivious to the grief suffered on that fateful day of the Omagh bombing in 1998.
To explain, I received a Project Brief from the Memorial Fund, along with an invitation mentioned above. The brief explained that the Omagh Bomb Memorial Fund was running a competition for another memorial design. Why do we need another memorial? It will just bring more sadness. I am happy with the existing garden. I only have some question about the wording on the granite obelisk which could be less contentious. It is more important that we pursue truth and justice.
I'm also concerned by paragraph 18 of the Project Brief stating that the design teams will retain copyright of their designs, but that they will allow reproduction of images and that the Memorial Working Group and its agents will have the right to use it for photographic public relations/information purposes. One wonders are they considering this not as a healing exercise but more like a tourist attraction.
Finally, I have stated in previous letters is that a more positive and lasting memorial to those lost loved ones would be an annual bursary/scholarship open to all and embracing the arts, commerce, law, etc.
Laurence Rush
Omagh
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/1901
Published Date: 10-May-07
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