Six-month delay to Omagh Bombing Inquiry

By Bairbre Holmes, Press Association

The next phase of hearings at the Omagh Bombing Inquiry will take place six months later than scheduled, the lead counsel to the inquiry has said.

Public hearings about the days immediately before and after the 1998 atrocity in the Co Tyrone town were due to start on March 9th.

On Thursday, Paul Greaney KC gave an update on the progress of the inquiry and said the hearings will now begin on September 21st.

He said core participants in the inquiry were informed of the development on March 6th.

The real IRA bombing killed 29 people, including the mother of unborn twins.

The inquiry, chaired by Lord Turnbull, was set up following a number of legal challenges brought by campaigners, to examine whether the explosion could have been prevented by UK authorities.

The next stage of the hearing, known as Chapter 3, will explore what can be established based on information including construction of the bomb, warning calls, claims of responsibility, arrests and subsequent court proceedings. He said the delay was due to material “originating from the Republic of Ireland not being available”.

Greaney said the volume of that material should not be “underestimated”, adding while it is being made available to the inquiry on a “rolling basis” it will only be fully disclosed by June.

The inquiry has received a “very significant quantity of An Garda Síochána material from the Government of Ireland”, he said.

He added 20,000 pages have already been disclosed and processed by the inquiry, and the material was provided to core participants last week.

Speaking about the delay, he said the inquiry legal team is “acutely aware of how disappointing this will be for many people”.