Omagh victim to feature in SDLP broadcast

The SDLP are today due to unveil their latest party election broadcast featuring a survivor of the 1998 Omagh bomb.

Donna Marie MacKillion who suffered injuries to her face following the Real IRA bomb attack in August 1998 which killed 29 people has been lined up to appear in the party’s second broadcast.

The first broadcast of the election campaign featured Gerry Conlon who was wrongfully imprisoned for the IRA’s bomb attacks in Guildford and Woolwich.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan was planning to address today the issue of public services.

Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness was due to focus on how his party would handle future peace process negotiations.

A recent deal involving the Irish and British governments, Sinn Féin, the IRA and the Ulster Unionists was derailed because of concerns over weapons decommissioning.

David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists were unhappy at the lack of details on the third act of IRA disarmament and put on hold their contribution to a series of choreographed moves designed to bolster the peace process and the Agreement ahead of the November 26 election.

Meanwhile, the Reverend Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists are due to launch a fresh offensive against David Trimble and the Good Friday Agreement, outlining their seven tests for a lasting political settlement in Northern Ireland.

The party was preparing to unveil its manifesto for the November 26 Assembly election focusing on the need to renegotiate the agreement and outlining what the party would do in devolved government.

Half of the 32-page document concentrates on the problems in the peace process, criticising Mr Trimble’s Ulster Unionists.

The other half deals with education, health, senior citizens, the size of government, policing and justice, the economy, farming, human rights and the environment.