MI5 intelligence on Omagh ‘only passed on this year’

THE North’s chief constable yesterday told the families of those killed in the Omagh bomb that intelligence gathered by MI5 before the attack was only passed to police in the North earlier this year.

Michael Gallagher, whose son was among the 29 people killed by the Real IRA in August 1998, said if the intelligence had been passed on before the attack it might have made a difference.

Mr Gallagher and others who lost loved ones in the bombing, together with a number of those injured, spent two hours in heated discussion with the chief constable.