'Real prospect of preventing' Omagh bomb, judge rules
Last updated 23rd Jul 2021
A High Court judge in Belfast has ruled there was a 'real prospect of preventing' the Omagh bombing, which killed 29 people.
Mr Justice Mark Horner recommended the UK Government undertake a human rights compliant investigation into the Omagh bombing, and urged the Irish Government to do likewise.
Campaigners launched the action in 2013 in an attempt to force an inquiry into the Real IRA atrocity in 1998 which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
It was the worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was killed in the blast, launched the judicial review after former Northern Ireland secretary Theresa Villiers decided not to order a public inquiry.
Mr Justice Horner told Belfast High Court: "I am satisfied that certain grounds when considered separately or together give rise to plausible allegations that there was a real prospect of preventing the Omagh bombing.
"These grounds involve, inter alia, the consideration of terrorist activity on both sides of the border by prominent dissident terrorist republicans leading up to the Omagh bomb.
"I am therefore satisfied that the threshold under Article 2 ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) to require the investigation of those allegations has been reached.''