O’Loan gives cool response to Nally but families outraged

THE Nally Report into the Omagh bombing has met with a cool response from the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman’s office and an outraged reaction from the families of the 31 victims.

In its first response to the report, the office of Ombudsman Nuala O’Loan seems to be nonplussed at the Nally Report’s findings that allegations about garda handling of intelligence in the run-up to the atrocity were unfounded.

A spokesman for Ms O’Loan’s office yesterday referred to a 57-page report submitted by her to the inquiry chairman, former Government secretary Dr Dermot Nally. It set out the detailed chronology of events provided by Detective Sergeant John White (now under suspension and facing separate criminal charges) covering the period leading up to and immediately after the Omagh Bombing.

Crucially, her report provided “references to evidential material which corroborated 23 separate aspects of the officer’s account”.

One inference that was being put on that last night is that the Ombudsman was of the opinion that there were very strong evidential grounds to some of the allegations.

The relatives of the victims of the Omagh bombing yesterday said they would consider asking the Human Rights Commission to assist them in their campaign.

The families will meet in the coming days to consider their options following the refusal by Justice Minister Michael McDowell to give them partial access to the Nally report.

Mr McDowell yesterday said he could not inform the families of the contents of the report because it would jeopardise secret garda operations against dissident republicans. But he said he was willing to meet them.

Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Adrian died in the atrocity, said families would also consider appealing to the Spanish Government, which lost two nationals in the bombing, and ask it to press the Government to hold a public inquiry.

Mr Gallagher criticised the failure to interview Paddy Dixon, a garda informer within the Real IRA. The statement issued yesterday by the Ombudsman’s office said that Ms O’Loan had considered that aspects of Detective Sergeant White’s account would merit further investigation. It details meetings held between senior investigators in her office with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Nally team.

Yesterday, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that when he met Ms O’Loan recently, she had been under the impression that the Nally team would contact her prior to the completion of the report.

Both the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Mr McDowell yesterday said this was not the case. “They made it clear to Nuala O’Loan that it would be to me they would report and nobody else and they did not give her any commitment they would do so,” said Mr McDowell.

Ms O’Loan’s only direct contact with the Nally Tribunal was at a meeting in July 2002. “The Police Ombudsman has since received no further contact from the Irish Government or Dr Nally in relation to the report’s content,” the spokesman said.