Omagh relatives seek church backing for cross-border probe

The leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland will today be asked by some of the relatives of victims of the Omagh bomb to back their campaign for a cross-border inquiry into the atrocity.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was among 29 people killed in the Real IRA bomb attack in August 1998, will lead a delegation which will meet Archbishop Sean Brady at his residence in Armagh.

The meeting in Ireland’s ecclesiastical capital follows a series of discussions with Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist church leaders.

As they prepared for today’s meeting, Mr Gallagher said British Prime Minister Tony Blair has also offered to meet them in Downing Street should he win the general election.

“Our meeting with Archbishop Brady is part of an on-going series of meetings with the main church leaders in Ireland who we know are very influential,” he said.

“We have concerns, very serious concerns about the way the Omagh investigation has been handled.

“We know the importance of the churches and that Archbishop Brady has a lot of influence in Dublin which can obviously help us in our campaign for a cross-border public inquiry.”