Omagh 20 years on: 'Omagh bomb's taken over my life'
Michael Gallagher's son Aiden was killed in the atrocity
Last updated 11th Aug 2018
The man behind the Omagh bomb justice campaign says the atrocity has taken over his life.
Michael Gallagher lost his son Aiden in the terrorist attack twenty years ago.
He was 21 and had gone shopping on Market Street in the town when the Real IRA car bomb exploded, killing 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins.
Michael told Downtown Cool FM about the last day he saw his son:
“On that morning I asked my wife is Aiden up because I knew he was out partying the night before and she said yes he’s going down the town to buy a pair of jeans.
“I’ll never forget when he turned and he walked down the hall and he looked back for the last time and said ‘I’ll not be long.’
“That was the last that we saw of Aiden.”
Michael was working in the family owned car garage when the bomb went off on the August 15, 1998.
He returned home to check on his family and it was then that he learned Aiden was missing.
Michael went to the Tyrone County Hospital to try to find his son three times that afternoon.
He said he eventually got the devastating news in the early hours of the morning:
“I was taken into a room and asked questions about Aiden, what sort of clothes he had, did he have any distinguishing marks and then I was asked to go to the mortuary at Lisanelly army camp.
“Then after that I had to leave the camp and go back home and tell my wife and two girls that Aiden wouldn’t be coming home.
“That journey was the most difficult and painful thing that I will hopefully ever have to do.”
Twentieth anniversary commemorations will take place in the town on Sunday and Wednesday to remember the victims.
Michael said despite the passing of time, the heartbreak of losing Aiden will never fade.
He paid tribute to his late and only son:
“Before the 15th of August, Aiden was our only son he was 21, he loved going out at the weekends with his friends and enjoying himself and he enjoyed music, he was a good and kind person.
“For ourselves as bereaved parents we have lost a wonderful human being, his two sisters have lost a beautiful brother.
“So there’s a huge loss, a huge gap there, the gap that Aiden has left can never be replaced and that’s the struggle that we’ve had to deal with over the past 20 years.
“We’ve had to deal with that pain… and over the years we have learned to manage that loss.
“You never fully come to terms with it you never fully…move on, it’s a question of managing it and dealing with it as best you can.”
Michael tried to return to some semblance of routine after the horrific events of that day, but found he had many unanswered questions.
He established the Omagh Support and self-help group and began a long crusade for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.
The Real IRA claimed responsibility for the attack but no one has ever been prosecuted.
Michael said he felt compelled to fight on behalf of all the victims:
“After the bomb I went back to the garage and I tried to work but Aiden and I had worked together and his coat was still hanging up in the corner of the garage.
“I just felt that I shouldn’t be there that I should be doing something and that’s exactly what I did do.
“Omagh just became part of my life.”
As well as providing help and support for victims and bereaved families, Michael campaigned for a public inquiry into the events leading up to the bomb.
He has been openly critical of the government’s plans to investigate the circumstances of the atrocity though a historical investigations unit and says a public inquiry is the only way to get the truth:
“In this country people often believe that a public inquiry is to shift the blame from the perpetrators, the criminals who delivered this bomb to the authorities.
“That is certainly not the case, the 31 people that died should not die in vain."
He said he became engrossed in his research and leading the campaign:
“I’ve devoted my last 20 years to dealing with the issues around the bomb and dealing with the victims.
“I have been totally immersed in it and I think to be totally immersed in anything’s not a good thing because we all need some balance and I don’t think I had that balance and I think for that reason as a family we’ve all suffered.
“I think it has taken over my life to a point, it’s almost like an addiction.”
Despite feeling so passionate about his quest for justice, the Omagh man says the consuming work has taken its toll:
“Loss of this kind is a very personal thing, everybody feels that loss differently, I felt that I had to go in a particular direction and that was a burden on my wife and two daughters.
“If I’ve any regrets, that's the regrets that I would have but I just felt that I was driven, I had to know more, I had to know what went wrong.
“My way of dealing with this was to be totally immersed in it.”
As chairman of the Omagh Support and self-help group, Michael has long since been the spokesperson for victims and families and attended many talks, events and press conferences.
He told us that came at a price:
“When we would have family events, it happened often in Omagh, things would either become a newsworthy story or other things would happen around Omagh.
"I would put the Omagh stuff first before my family.
“That had a bad effect on our relationship and they have had to pay a price they shouldn’t have had to pay.”
In 2013 the UK government said there would be no public inquiry into the atrocity.
Michael and the group of campaigners judicially reviewed the decision but earlier this year the outcome of that was delayed until 2019.
He said the fight has left him weary:
“It’s been a long, hard journey but during that journey I’ve met some truly wonderful, amazing people.
“Some of those people have passed away, I will never ever forget those and many of them have helped me along the journey that I’ve travelled.
“It’s been long and hard but there has been some really inspirational moments."
And he’s now preparing to hand over the mantle:
“To be honest you do get very tired over that long period, I’m looking forward to getting to the end of this process and getting my own life back and doing the things that I want to do in life.
“My role here, I will probably always have an interest in what’s happening here but I think it is time to hand over to a new generation and I will help and support that new generation.
“We have to recognise that we have done as much as we possibly can, certainly I feel like I’ve done as much as I can as a bereaved parent."