Omagh one year on
This Sunday, 15 August, marks the first anniversary of the Omagh bombing. Twenty-nine people lost their lives and over 300 were injured, many critically, when the so-called Real IRA launched an attack rivaled in sheer scale only by the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1972.
The families of those who lost their lives, who lost limbs or suffered a range of other seriously debilitating injuries are still living with their grief and struggling to cope with their physical and psychological wounds.
What shocked people as much as the event, however, was its timing. The bomb was detonated at a stage when the peace process was generating real hope in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement, which the vast majority of people in the island had endorsed through referenda. Its victims were Catholic and Protestant alike.
Omagh shares its unwelcome anniversary with another seminal and tragic event, the burning of Bombay Street on 15 August 1969, which precipitated the arrival of British troops onto the streets and acted as a catalyst for the escalation of conflict.
Bombay Street was the unfortunate starting point for 30 years of conflict and struggle.
Omagh, on the other hand, a terrible reminder of the price of failure, should be remembered as the event which spurred Ireland and Britain to arrive at a just and lasting peace. It should have been a spur to drive the peace process forward.
In the year to date, however, no progress has been made and the process is parked and in deep crisis.
Instead of redoubling their efforts for peace, the DUP arrived in Omagh to score cheap political points, the same points they have been scoring ever since. The UUP chose to intensify its demand for the IRA's surrender through decommissioning, an excuse to avoid sharing power with nationalists. The British government, meanwhile, sat back and allowed David Trimble to dictate the terms of the unionist-created impasse.
On the first anniversary of Omagh, let those who have failed to take risks for peace take heed. We must all pause briefly to honour the dead and then redouble our efforts on behalf of the living.
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