UK official had concerns about Mary McAleese being at Omagh event without Queen Elizabeth

Then president Mary McAleese and taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Omagh, Co Tyrone, at a remembrance ceremony in 1998 for the victims of the car bombing. File picture: Peter Murphy/PA Wire

A British government official tried to stop President Mary McAleese attending a memorial service for the victims of the Omagh bombing in 1998 as Queen Elizabeth II was not attending.

Twenty-nine people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed when a car bomb exploded in the Co Tyrone town in 1998.