Moving encounter should lead to rebirth of forum for reconciliation

DERMOT HACKETT was 37 years of age when, on May 23, 1987, he was gunned down as he drove his bread van along the Omagh to Drumquin road. He was hit by 15 bullets from a sub machine gun and was killed instantly.

The man later convicted of Dermot Hackett’s murder was Michael Stone. Stone was a United Freedom Fighters hit-man and is most notorious for the gun and grenade attack he launched on mourners at an IRA funeral in Milltown Cemetery in 1988, killing three people.

Stone was subsequently convicted of the murders of six Catholics including Hackett and the attempted murder of six others. He was sentenced to a total of 684 years in prison. However he was released under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement having served just 12 years.