Debate contribution: The Troubles: Irish State Role

Debate contribution by Miss Nicola Brogan on 11 March 2025.

MLA

Miss Nicola Brogan

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

11 March 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

The Troubles: Irish State Role

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4855835

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I speak today as an elected representative of Omagh and of West Tyrone and as a member of the wider Omagh community. It is a community that has suffered greatly and has felt real hurt and pain and dealt with it since the atrocity of the Omagh bomb on 15 August 1998. I have spoken with the families of the bereaved and with survivors, and I have attended hearings of the public inquiry. Other members of Sinn Féin, including our senior leadership, have also engaged with the families over the years and have endorsed, with their full support, the demands of truth and justice for the Omagh families. I again take the opportunity to acknowledge publicly the strength, courage and compassion of all the people who told their stories and described their experiences of that awful day throughout the public inquiry and after it. Their pain and anguish was palpable as they relived the trauma of what happened in Omagh almost 27 years ago. The suffering and the sense of loss will haunt the families for the rest of their lives. The pain and distress of the injured will remain with them for the rest of their lives. Despite their pain and loss, the families have remained steadfast in their ongoing pursuit of truth and justice for their loved ones. Their persistence in continuing with their campaign over the years is the reason that the inquiry was established. Time and again, when the path to truth and justice was blocked, they carried on regardless. They used every legal option open to them until they attained their objective of a public inquiry that has given them the opportunity to examine the fundamental question that has exercised the minds of the families for so long: could the attack have been prevented? The Irish Government's Justice Minister has outlined his support for the public inquiry into the Omagh bomb and said that they will do everything possible to assist the inquiry. Minister O'Callaghan said that a central point of contact has been established in his Department to ensure the timely and effective management of all requests from the inquiry. The motion calls on the Irish Government to conduct their own inquiry into the atrocity. The families called on the Irish Government to carry out a parallel but separate inquiry, but they ultimately want maximum cooperation between the Irish Government and the inquiry that has been established. Last month, Sinn Féin president, Mary Lou McDonald, again supported that call. She agreed with the Omagh families, who have been calling for that cooperation from the beginning, and urged the Government to fulfil their role to ensure that the inquiry is successful. The enormity of the atrocity and the impact that it has had on the lives of the victims, survivors and families and on the wider Omagh community mean that the motion should have a singular focus on the Omagh Bombing inquiry and not stray into contested legacy issues. We owe it to the families, who have carried the burden of their campaign for 27 years, to grasp the opportunity to send out a united and powerful endorsement of support for the Omagh families in their quest for truth and justice.

536 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not qualifying

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:15 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification