Omagh families to snub Ahern visit
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will be snubbed by the families of those killed in the Omagh bomb atrocity when he visits the Co Tyrone town today.
Relatives of the 29 people killed in the Real IRA bombing have been unsuccessfully seeking a meeting with Mr Ahern for five years and decided the few minutes the Taoiseach was offering them during his visit was not enough.
Instead, representatives of the families will travel to Dublin for a long-standing meeting with the leader of Fine Gael, Enda Kenny.
Mr Ahern is making a one-day visit to Northern Ireland for economic and social matters rather than the political affairs that regularly take him to Belfast.
But he is making a first visit to Omagh to see the site of the 1998 bombing, to see the memorial garden for the victims and to meet local councillors and representatives of community groups.
Michael Gallagher, spokesman for the relatives, said: “Our group will not be represented when Mr Ahern visits Omagh.
“We have been asking for a meeting with him for five years, but when I asked how long we would be able to meet with him, I was told the most we could hope for was five to 10 minutes.”
He added: “We want a proper sit-down meeting, not a photo opportunity for the Taoiseach.”
Mr Gallagher voiced his demands for a proper meeting when it became known a few days ago that Mr Ahern was visiting Omagh. He said he had not been contacted since to be offered a more substantial discussion.
He said had Mr Ahern’s office offered such discussions they would have split the group and kept some in Omagh and sent the rest to Dublin.
“It may seem strange that we will be in Dublin when he is in Omagh, but we have important and sensitive questions to put to him and this visit would be an inappropriate forum for that.”
Mr Ahern is also visiting the University of Ulster in Coleraine, Co Derry, where he is due to make a keynote address on the Northern Ireland peace process.
Later he will be in Belfast to meet Lord Mayor Martin Morgan and public representatives.
He will also travel to west Belfast for a meeting with cross-community community groups.
