Flanagan meets Omagh relatives

Northern Ireland’s police chief Ronnie Flanagan today met relatives of the Omagh bomb victims to ‘‘correct distortions’’ about his handling of the investigation into the atrocity.

Mr Flanagan was due to make a stout defence of his force and rebut the devastating criticisms contained in the police ombudsman’s report issued last month.

Arriving for the meeting Mr Flanagan said: ‘‘What an important day this is because sadly in recent weeks and indeed months there has been so much distorted material in the public domain that I am here to see the people who really matter.’’

He said what was most important was that people could ‘‘ask us whatever questions they want to ask and have answers. They will get an answer to any question they ask.’’

Families arriving for the crunch meeting with the Chief Constable said they were waiting to hear the truth from him about how his force had handled the Omagh investigation.

Stanley McCombe, who lost his wife in the bombing, said: ‘‘We want the truth, whatever it may be.’’

Families had been left confused by the divisions between Mrs O’Loan and Mr Flanagan and their opposing views on the handling of the investigation.

Mr McCombe said of the Chief Constable: ‘‘I think he will have a job getting the trust of the families back.’’

Arriving for the meeting with him was Michael Gallagher, whose son died in the explosion.

He said: ‘‘I think it is going to be a very difficult meeting for us. It is one of the many difficult days we have had to face since Omagh.

‘‘We had thought that at this stage it would have got easier but it hasn’t.’’

Mr Gallagher said they had a great many questions for Mr Flanagan. ‘‘We’ll have to wait and see what his responses are.’’

The two senior officers heading up the Omagh investigation south of the border were also attending today’s meeting with the families.

Assistant Chief Constable Kevin Carty and Detective Superintendent Tadhg Foley travelled from Dublin to brief the families on how their probe was going.

The meeting, behind closed doors in the conference room at Omagh’s Silver Birch hotel was being chaired by Kenneth Bloomfield, the Victims’ Commissioner in Northern Ireland and a former head of the civil service in the North.

There has been some discontent among the families at Mr Bloomfield's involvement. Some of them believe he did not do enough for them in his role of commissioner.