Omagh bombing

On 15 August 1998, a car bomb containing roughly 500 pounds of fertiliser-based explosives detonated on Market Street in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The bombing was carried out by the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA), a splinter group that had broken from the Provisional IRA in 1997 in opposition to the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement signed earlier in 1998. Telephoned warnings using the codeword "Martha Pope" were sent roughly forty minutes before the explosion but did not specify an accurate location; police, believing the device was near the courthouse, evacuated people toward the actual bomb site rather than away from it. Twenty-one people were killed outright and eight more died later, including a final victim, Seán McGrath, who died on 5 September after three weeks in hospital. Around 220 people were injured. Victims included Protestants and Catholics, six teenagers, six children, two Spanish tourists, and a woman pregnant with twins.

The bombing caused widespread condemnation locally and internationally, including from Prime Minister Tony Blair, Queen Elizabeth II, Pope John Paul II, and President Bill Clinton. The Real IRA claimed responsibility three days later, denied intending to kill civilians, apologised, and subsequently declared a ceasefire on 7 September 1998. In response, the UK and Irish parliaments swiftly passed new anti-terrorism legislation.

Investigations and prosecutions produced limited results. Colm Murphy was convicted in January 2002 of conspiracy related to the bombing, but his conviction was quashed in 2005 after it emerged that Garda Síochána officers had falsified interview notes. His nephew, Sean Hoey, was tried on 56 charges including murder and was acquitted of all counts in December 2007. A civil action brought by victims' families concluded in June 2009, with the court finding Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, and Seamus Daly liable for the bombing and awarding £1.6 million in damages; a co-defendant, Seamus McKenna, was cleared of involvement. Murphy and Daly's appeal resulted in a retrial that again found them liable. In 2014, Seamus Daly was charged with the murder of the 29 victims, but the Public Prosecution Service withdrew the case in February 2016, citing no reasonable prospect of conviction.

A 2001 Police Ombudsman report by Nuala O'Loan found that the RUC Special Branch had failed to act on prior warnings and criticised the force's handling of the investigation. Separate allegations, including from double agents and informants, suggested that British, Irish and US intelligence agencies held information that might have helped prevent the bombing but that was not passed to the RUC. In 2008, BBC reporting indicated that GCHQ had recorded phone conversations between the bombers as the car was driven into Omagh. A 2021 High Court ruling by Mr Justice Mark Horner found there had been "a real prospect of preventing the Omagh bombing," leading to the announcement of an independent statutory inquiry in 2023 and the establishment of a full public inquiry in February 2024, chaired by Lord Turnbull, examining whether UK state authorities could have prevented the attack. The inquiry began full hearings in January 2025 and has continued taking evidence into 2025, including testimony from bereaved families and procedural disputes over disclosure and special advocates.