Real IRA terrorists bombed Omagh with ‘impunity’, witness tells inquiry

The Real IRA terrorists who bombed Omagh in 1998 seem to have been allowed to act with “impunity”, a witness has told a public inquiry.

Simon McLarnon described how he attempted to help victims of the explosion, but was left with a lifelong sense of guilt that he was unable to do more.

Mr McLarnon, who works as a general dental surgeon in Co Donegal, was at his girlfriend’s house in the Co Tyrone town on the day of the blast.

He told the Omagh Bombing Inquiry: “I had first aid training because I was a recent graduate, but I wasn’t able to use it on the day.

“I felt fairly useless. I did very little with the casualties and those that were injured.

“It left me with an immense sense of guilt which I carry to this day.”

He told the inquiry that the explosion was the “loudest noise I had ever heard”.

He went to the town centre where he said he was met with a a “sea of glass”.

Mr McLarnon said he saw a man with a serious head injury being tended to by a teenager. He said he showed the youth how to try to stop the bleeding before moving on to help others.

He told the inquiry he heard a woman sobbing and crying out “my leg, my leg”.

He said: “There were two ladies….the older of the two ladies, one of her legs was virtually amputated, it was held on by skin only.

“There was a younger girl say beside her who had two limbs virtually amputated and very serious injuries.

“I spent some time with her. I had no idea what to do with her.

“I had limited first aid experience. I had actually been shown how to deal with an amputated limb but not two.”

He added: “She was awake, she was conscious, she wanted me to help her and I told her that ambulances were on the way.”

Mr McLarnon said he suffered from depression and trauma due to his experiences on the day of the bombing.

He said: “I could not walk up Market Street, even after it re-opened and I avoided the town centre.

“I would have nightmares about what I had seen and I felt useless, guilt, anger and depressed about my inability to help anyone on the day of the bomb.

“I was angry with the bombers and that they have evaded justice.

“I was angry with the way victims were treated by politicians, the government and the police.

“The large number of children injured in the bomb made me feel guilty for managing to walk away from it uninjured.

“I wished it had been me instead of one of the children who were only beginning to live their lives.”

He also said he had a sense of injustice about what had happened in Omagh.

He said: “They (the terrorists) seem to have done it with impunity.

“We know several of them have lived out their lives now and never have to face justice.

“That, I find very difficult to accept.”

He added: “Who would support the slaughter of children, babies and innocent people? The maiming and blinding of children, the murder of pregnant women?

“No-one has come forward. They are protected in the communities they live in, I can’t understand that.

“I can’t understand that if you knew your neighbour, brother, husband was involved in this, that you wouldn’t go to police or An Garda Siochana or anyone to say you had concerns about them.

“That hasn’t happened and I find that difficult to understand and accept.”