“For sale: baby shoes, never worn” is a six word story that is often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, though many dispute the story originated with the American author. Whatever the source, it is possibly the shortest, and saddest, story ever written.
This story takes on a real, and heartbreaking, meaning, as one reads the evidence recently presented to the inquiry into the Real IRA bombing of Omagh on August 15th, 1998.
Lorraine Wilson, aged fifteen, and her best friend, Samantha McFarland, aged seventeen, were working in the town’s Oxfam shop when they were killed that day.
In his opening statement, the chairperson, Lord Turnbull, said the commemorative hearings will have an “important value” in educating others about the real effect of terrorism.
“Those beyond Omagh who listen and watch will, as I was, be shocked at the level of grief imposed on ordinary decent members of society doing nothing other than living their daily lives,” he said.
Seventeen-year old Jolene Marlow was buried the day her A level results came out.
The evidence of the survivors, and the impact of the bombing on their lives is no less devastating than those who lost loved ones, and this evidence should be compulsory reading for all school going children in this country. It makes for heartbreaking reading.
Twenty month old Breda Devine was due to be the flower girl at her uncle’s upcoming wedding.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” was written by George Santayana over a century ago, and it is important we continue to remember the victims of the Omagh bombing.
We should remember the victims of all terrorist attacks, firstly because they have the right to be remembered as the people they were, and not just included in the statistics of those who lost their lives to terrorism. It is also important that we remember them to inform future generations of the horrors of the past, and why we must never return there. The same fate was suffered by people in Enniskillen, Dublin, Guildford, Belfast, Birmingham, Derry and far too many other places.
We must also expose the lie that “there was no alternative” to the terrorist campaigns of violence being waged at the time, as some politicians are wont to say. The passage of time is indeed the terrorist’s greatest friend, as they and their apologists seek to pretend that what were brutal crimes against innocent people were something heroic. Difficult as it is to believe now, and outrageous as it seems, but some day in twenty or thirty years time, some leading politician may describe those who planted the Omagh bomb as great patriots or heroic Irishmen. But the testimony of those who have given evidence at the Omagh bombing inquiry exposes these lies, and lays bare the devastating reality of the effects of a terrorist bomb.
One of the victims, seventeen year old Brenda Logue, was described by her brother Cathal, at the inquiry, as a “sweet natured girl” who was considerate of others, a leader in her local youth club, a talented Gaelic footballer and hoped to become a PE teacher. Before her mother, Mary, died of cancer in November, she told her sons what she would like to say to the enquiry, and Cathal spoke on her behalf. Her mother said they had been in a shop when Brenda walked out “ to see what was happening”.
The last thing her mother remembered was Brenda’s “ponytail swishing as she walked out the door”. The blast threw Mary against a wall and she was knocked unconscious. When she came round she “knew in her heart Brenda was gone, but went out to look for her”. Brenda’s death caused “irreversible emotional damage” to the family. Imagine seeing a beloved daughter, walking out a door, “ponytail swishing”, and never seeing her again.
Twelve year old James Barker’s mother, Donna Maria, previously said she “never realised how green his eyes were” until she had to identify his body
Heroism amid the horror
There was heroism in Omagh that day, but of a different kind.
Pauline Harte, a 19 year old student at the time, outlined what happened her on that dreadful day. “ The engine of the car used for the bomb landed on my legs, with the axle resting on my waist, and it was on fire. I was on fire underneath it. I didn’t know it was a fire, because fire has the colour yellow in it. I saw deep black, orange and red colours moving, and it sounded as angry as it looked. To my knowledge, there were six to eight incredible men who started to rock the engine to try to free me, burning their hands in the process, these men did not stop and tend to their injuries”.
One of the men later told Pauline that he went home with her skin melted into his hands. “ I will never forget their dedication and selfless actions” Pauline said. The chairman of the inquiry told Pauline he had never heard “such an attitude of kindness and generosity being expressed in the face of barbaric violence of the sort which was inflicted upon her”.
Thirty six year old Esther Gibson, who was killed in the bomb, and her fiancé, Kenneth, had their engagement portrait taken in the town that day.
The names of the twenty nine who lost their lives were James Barker, Geraldine Breslin, Rocio Abad Ramos, Fernando Blasco Baselga, Debra-Anne Cartwright, Gareth Conway, Breda Devine, Oran Doherty, Aiden Gallagher, Esther Gibson, Mary Grimes, Olive Hawkes, Julia Hughes, Brenda Logue, Jolene Marlow, Ann McCombe, Brian McRory, Samantha McFarland, Sean McGrath, Shaun McLaughlin, Avril Monaghan, Maura Monaghan, Alan Radford, Elizabeth Rush, Veda Short, Philomena Skelton, Bryan White, Fred White and Lorraine Wilson.
Avril Monaghan’s unborn twins names were going to be Eimear and Evelyn.
An ultrasound picture of these unborn twins was shown at the Inquiry.
In the bombing, which denied them the chance to ever draw their first breath, their mother, Avril Monaghan, Avril’s mother, Mary Grimes and their 20 month old sister, Maura, were also killed.
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn”. Two pairs.
