Irish Republican News · October 29, 2004

Omagh relative's anger at British silence

The father of one of the Omagh bomb victims has accused the British government of misleading the victims' families about the whereabouts of an informant who warned police in advance about the 1998 attack.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the bombing, said it was a scandal that a key informer on the breakaway "Real IRA" now appeared to be living in Britain.

The families of the Omagh bomb had urged the British government to put pressure on Dublin to allow Dixon to be interviewed by the Omagh investigation team.

Mr Gallagher said: “We have demanded that the Irish Government make this man available. To discover that he is now living in the UK is unbelievable and is another shabby example of how the families are being treated.

“The British Government have been disingenuous on how they have dealt with the families. We have been allowed to believe that this man wasn’t under their control.”

Dixon was recently stopped in Cardiff by the British authorities and found to have a large quantity of cash on him, but was immediately released.

His comments followed a parliamentary question at Westminster by British Tory MP Laurence Robertson. Junior minister Ian Pearson replied that he would look into the matter.

Mr Gallagher again called for a cross-border inquiry into the Real IRA bombing.

“We are calling on the Northern Ireland political leaders to come out and support us on this.

“It is quite remarkable that we have an English MP who is standing up and demanding answers about Omagh and we have all these leaders in Northern Ireland who beat a path to Omagh in 1998 and we virtually haven’t seen them since.”

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