Omagh bomb memorial row resolved

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A row over the wording to be inscribed on a new Omagh bomb memorial has been resolved.

Some bereaved families have won their fight to ensure the memorial stone says they were murdered in a "dissident republican terrorist car bomb".

Omagh District Council accepted the report by an independent fact-finding group, headed by former Presbyterian moderator Dr John Dunlop.

The memorial should be ready for the atrocity's 10th anniversary in August.

The group held more than 80 meetings with bereaved families, the injured and people affected by the bombing.

To honour and remember 31 people murdered and hundreds injured from three nations by a dissident republican terrorist car bomb Memorial wording Some victims' families have welcomed the inclusion of the words, which tell the story of the day of the bomb, pay tribute to those who were killed and give hope for the future.

There will be three parts to the new memorial, with less contentious language used to describe the bombing on an engraving at the site of the explosion and on a wall leading to the nearby garden of remembrance.

The families' preferred wording will be carried on a stone wall in the garden itself.

The contentious sentence is: "To honour and remember 31 people murdered and hundreds injured from three nations by a dissident republican terrorist car bomb."

Mr Dunlop said: "This was a long narrative so we weren't just faced with choosing between 20 or 25 different words.

A mother carrying unborn twins was among the 29 victims"So we decided we were going to put a long story about what happened in the context of the day and in the context of the politics and in the context of what happened afterwards."

The Omagh Support and Self Help Group does not represent all the families, and Mr Dunlop said they had to decide whether to incorporate their preferred wording into the narrative.

"We took the decision that that was something that we ought to do," he said.

The tribute stone which bore the original inscription was removed from the temporary remembrance garden last year to allow work to begin on a new permanent memorial.

Although Mr Dunlop's team recommended that the stone was not returned to the garden as it did not fit with the new design, he stressed that the inscription was being incorporated.