Omagh bombing families say town thrust back into 'dark ages' after shooting
As an uneasy Omagh copes with another brutal event, the families of past tragedies are once again feeling their pain.
Quietly echoing through the streets of a town in Northern Ireland are constant reminders of a fraught past and over 24 years since the 1998 bombing, another incident rocked the town on February 22.
Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell wasn't on duty when he was gunned down at a popular sports centre. He was loading footballs into a car close to where he had just been passing down his wisdom to a youth team as their coach.
Each sickening crack fired from the guns used by the assailants was yet another jolting reminder for the families of 1998 that there remain some within the community who do not welcome peace.
"This has taken us back into the dark ages," said Michael Gallagher, whose son was one of 29 people killed in the vicious Real IRA bomb attack nearly 25 years ago.
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Michael, who also knew Caldwell and his grandfather, said families have been set back by the shooting of Caldwell.
Michael knew John Caldwell (PA)"It just takes them back to that same trauma of not knowing who is going to be next and not knowing what is going to happen next," he said.
Shot in front of his own son, the PSNI man is understood to have uttered the word "dissidents" before he fell unconscious.
In civil proceedings, four members of the Real IRA were found liable for the bombing that took the life of Michael's son (PA)
Young Adrian, or Aiden, sadly lost his life in 1998 (PA)Shot in front of his own son, the PSNI man is understood to have uttered the word "dissidents" before he fell unconscious.
Michael Gallagher's own son Aiden's life was taken away from him at the age of just 21. Aiden had his whole future ahead of him and even a move to the United States was beckoning before his innocent life was taken from him.
Michael said: "To actually hear there was an [attack] on a policeman... but then to learn that you actually knew the person and then to learn that there were children in the vicinity including his own young son, it was quite horrific.
The aftermath of the 1998 bomb (PA)"You were taken back to a place where you thought you would never be taken back to. "
The Troubles brought the Gallagher family repeated shockwaves of pain. Before the events of 1998, Michael's brother Hugh was also killed by the IRA in 1984.
He was 26 years old when he was murdered around three miles away from where Caldwell would be shot years later.
On top of that, a bomb exploded outside their house, which was next to a police station, just 11 years before.
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Michael holding a redacted email from a Real IRA mole. An inquiry will now go ahead (PA)Michael's daughter, meanwhile was just seven when her uncle died. The young child had nightmares for six months afterwards as she thought a gunman would suddenly come after her family.
"Now think how those young boys [at the Caldwell shooting] were affected," Michael pointed out. "I think it was absolutely shocking and talking to people who have been affected through the years. They just felt like they were struggling to really deal with it.
"We have two communities here. We should really only have one community but sadly we have two communities. It didn't matter what section of the community you spoke to, everybody I talked to was horrified."
Michael said members across the Omagh community were 'horrified' by the Caldwell shooting (PA)The shooting comes at what was supposed to be a time of moving forward for the families of Omagh.
Only last month, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris announced an independent statutory inquiry into the Omagh bomb.
The Real IRA claimed responsibility for the act, but the inquiry comes after a recent High Court judgment that there "were specific issues that gave rise to plausible arguments" that it could have been prevented.
Michael and the Omagh families have long called for the inquiry (PA)It will focus on four key areas: the handling of intelligence, whether there was advance knowledge that could have been acted upon, if an operation to disrupt it could have been put into place and the use of cell phone analysis.
The government said: "Four members of the Real IRA were subsequently found liable for the bombing in civil proceedings held in Northern Ireland. This inquiry does nothing to counter these findings, which are clear in who was responsible for this awful atrocity."
The goal for Omagh families isn't just the truth, but there is also hope that politics in the country will strive for the kind of compromises vital for power sharing - which broke down last year - in the Northern Ireland assembly to continue.
Some members of the unionist community were upset by the Northern Ireland protocol that put a border for checks down the Irish Sea. They felt it separated them from Great Britain.
Supporters of the Good Friday Agreement lobby outside the House of Commons (PA)Earlier this week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak presented a trade agreement with the European Union that he hopes will satisfy members of the unionist community in Northern Ireland.
It awaits a vote in Parliament that Labour said they will back, though it will likely need the approval of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) for power sharing to be restored.
In a similar vein, the 1998 bomb came only a few months after the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
While the agreement widely was lauded as a success for unprecedented reconciliation and compromise, community leaders and politicians often remind their followers that it is a fragile peace.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) US Senator George Mitchell (C) and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern smiling after they signed the historic agreement for peace in Northern Ireland in 1998 (PA)The New IRA, meanwhile, has since claimed responsibility for the shooting of Caldwell. The dissident group has previously claimed the Agreement is "dead."
The PSNI said the group are the "primary focus" of the investigation, but that four of the eight men arrested are from a Protestant and loyalist community background.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan added: "We shouldn't get confused with titles like loyalism...
"These are people who are involved in criminality. They have strong links to members of the New IRA, those are long-standing links."
Michael added he was "angry" when he heard the news of the shooting last week, but that the joint statement by cross-community politicians was a "strong statement."
Of the suspected assailants, Michael said: "What kind of society do these people think we should have? A society where there is no policemen? People like this that step out of the darkness [guns]... they're going to deliver justice?"
He continued: "What we have in this country is we have some of the best people in the world. They are well educated, they are talented, they are friendly, but within society there is a small niche of people who live in these sectarian enclaves.
"Their diet is hatred and the other side is always wrong."
It was not the first time the communities of Omagh began once again to feel the pain of times gone by, but the families, police services and defiant locals continue to hope it will be the last.
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