Omagh inquiry: Son missed his child’s birth to be with dying dad

A man whose father died as a result of the Omagh bomb has told an inquiry he missed the birth of his first child so he could be at his dying father’s bedside.

Sean McGrath, 61, died in hospital three weeks after the 1998 explosion.

He was among 29 people killed when the Real IRA bombed the County Tyrone town, including a woman who was pregnant with twins.

Gavin McGrath, who lived in England at the time of the bombing, recalled how he had to travel to Belfast his see his “horrifically injured” father in hospital.

Mr McGrath’s three children submitted personal statements to the Omagh Bombing Inquiry, outlining the devastating impact of his death on their lives.

“My father was a wonderful man and deserved to live his life to the full, and for it to end naturally,” Gavin McGrath’s statement said.

He recalled how his daughter Polly was born in London on 18 August 1998 – three days after the bomb – while he was still in Belfast.

“Polly’s first trip, from our home in England, to my hometown in Omagh, was to go to her grandpa’s funeral.

“She was 19 days old,” Gavin said.

Mr McGrath, a successful Omagh businessman, had been caught up in the blast on the same street that he was born on 61 years earlier.

A statement from Sean’s other son, Conor McGrath, said his family has still not come to terms with his loss.

“Every anniversary just picks at the scar – maybe not as raw now, but still not healed and I doubt it ever will.”

Conor also spoke of the close bond Sean had developed with his own young daughter, Sara, whose birth in 1996 appeared to give his father a “new lease of life”.

A home video of Sean playing and laughing with Sara at her second birthday party – just four months before the bomb – was shown to the inquiry.

Sara was the only one of Sean’s grandchildren who got to meet him before his death, which Conor described as devastating.

His statement also outlined how there were delays airlifting his seriously injured father to hospital in Belfast.

“Apparently Sean was taken off the helicopter a couple of times because there were others in more need – we will never know if this delay would have made any difference,” Conor said.

He added it had been a difficult process to tell the inquiry of his “positive, faithful, hardworking, warm-hearted” father who was very much missed.

Sean’s daughter Noeleen said he was “the best of men” and would have protected his family from difficult situations.

She said he would have been “horrified to know we spent three weeks in a horrible limbo at the hospital wondering if he would pull through, despite his horrific injuries”.

Samantha McFarland was volunteering in the Oxfam shop alongside her best friend when they were both killed in the Omagh bomb.

The inquiry heard how the 17-year-old charity shop worker’s life could not have been a greater contrast to the morality of the bombers.

A solicitor said Oxfam store was evacuated in response to the “so-called bomb warning” it is believed Samantha did not want to go too far as she had the keys to the shop.

The youngest of three children, she was due to be a bridesmaid at her brother’s wedding in September 1998

Samantha was a former pupil of Omagh High School and was studying for her A levels at Strabane College.

In a a statement read to the inquiry, she was described as having a lovely personality with a “genuine kindness that people were drawn to”.

The teenager was said to be someone who touched the lives of many others.

As well as working one day a week at the Oxfam shop, she also volunteered at the Barnardo’s shop in the town.

So many people attended her funeral, the inquiry was told, that mourners had to stand outside.

Thursday is the final day of the second week of the hearings commemorating the bomb victims.

The inquiry chairman Lord Turnbull said “amongst the other awful loss we have listened to, we have heard of the senseless killing of children and young people who were about top embark on the adventure of adult life”.

Lord Turnbull said Samantha McFarland had brought joy and kindness into the lives of others through her thoughtfulness and popularity.

“One really has to wonder whether there could be any greater contrast between the generous and socially-minded attitude of a teenager who chose to spend her precious spare time of her young years trying to help those with less advantages than herself.

“And on the other hand the morality of those who would walk away from a car loaded with explosives in the middle of the main street on a sunny Saturday afternoon, in the sure knowledge that devastation would ensue shortly thereafter,” he said.

The bomb exploded in Omagh town centre on a busy Saturday afternoon on 15 August 1998.

The attack took place four months after the signing of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

The RIRA – a dissident republican paramilitary group – disagreed with the Provisional IRA’s decision to call a ceasefire ahead of the talks and continued to plant car bombs in towns across Northern Ireland.

But the Omagh bomb was by far the RIRA’s most deadly attack.

In addition to the dead, more than 200 other people were wounded, some of whom survived with life-changing injuries.

Three days after the 1998 attack, the Real IRA released a statement claiming responsibility for the explosion.

It apologised to “civilian” victims and said its targets had been commercial.

Almost 27 years on, no-one has been convicted of carrying out the murders by a criminal court.

In 2009, the judge in that case ruled four of the men – Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were all liable for the Omagh bomb.

The four men were ordered to pay a total of £1.6m in damages to the relatives, but appeals against the ruling delayed the compensation process.

A fifth man, Seamus McKenna, was acquitted in the civil action and later died in a roofing accident in 2013.