Hoey challenged over cross-border inquiry

The man cleared of the Omagh bomb was challenged today to fully co-operate with a cross border judicial inquiry into the atrocity.

Sean Hoey, 38, from Jonesborough, South Armagh, who was acquitted last month of the 29 murders at Omagh, said he supported calls by victims’ relatives for a north-south tribunal.

He declared: “The Omagh families and my own family deserve to know the whole truth and only a proper cross-border public inquiry will get to the truth.

“I want to know what the British and Irish governments are afraid of from an inquiry.”

However, victims’ relatives today challenged Hoey to put himself up for public scrutiny.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the August 1998 outrage, said today: “Will he fully co-operate in any public inquiry. We know he did not go into the witness box at his trial but is he now prepared to fully co-operate.”