The family of an Omagh bombing victim desperately searched for the missing schoolgirl in the aftermath of the massacre, a public inquiry has heard.
The Omagh Bombing Inquiry heard that 15-year-old Lorraine Wilson had been working in an Oxfam shop on the day she died in 1998 and had wanted to buy her school uniform out of her own wages.
Lorraine’s family, including younger brother Colin and her older sister Denise Kerrigan, provided a statement which was read to the inquiry by a lawyer on Monday afternoon.
The statement said: “Lorraine was a joy. She was an easygoing person who loved life and she always put other people first.”
The family said that she loved cooking and travel and had taken part in cross-community peace trips. She was a pupil of Omagh High School.
A personal reflection read on behalf of her brother Colin said she was “generally loved”.
He added: “She was like a wee mother-hen to me and there is no doubt she would have made someone a wonderful wife.”
In her reflection, Ms Kerrigan recalled the day of the bomb and how her sister had been working in the Oxfam shop.
She said: “That Saturday she had wanted to buy her school uniform and school shoes out of her own wages in preparation for going back to school.”
The inquiry heard that Lorraine Wilson wanted to buy her school uniform on the day she died (Family handout/PA)
The family had been due to meet Lorraine in Omagh town centre but were unable to get there due to the bomb alert.
Ms Kerrigan’s statement said she had just returned home to tell her husband about the alert when they heard the explosion.
She said: “We saw a large dark plume fill the air in the vicinity of the town centre.”
The family attempted to drive to the town centre but were turned back by police, so had to continue on foot.
Ms Kerrigan’s statement said: “As we stood there some of the windows of the buildings were all collapsing in.
“We started asking people if they had seen Lorraine but you could see how traumatised people were.
“Some were covered in debris and some people just could not speak.”
The family went to Omagh hospital in an attempt to find out information about Lorraine.
Ms Kerrigan said: “The scene at the hospital was shocking.
“Nurses and doctors running around, people on stretchers, blood on the floor, people standing around in confused states; it was a harrowing scene to take in.”
The inquiry heard the family then went to the town’s leisure centre and stayed there throughout Saturday and into Sunday as they waited for news.
Ms Kerrigan said: “Dad was saying surely there has to be a light at the end of the tunnel. He was holding on to the hope he would see his daughter again.”
Chairman of the Omagh Bombing Inquiry Lord Turnbull at the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh (Liam McBurney/PA)
The inquiry was told the family were brought to a temporary morgue at an Army camp on Sunday to identify Lorraine’s body.
Ms Kerrigan said: “We held Lorraine’s hand, hugged her, touched her hair, told her how much we loved her.”
She said: “We all broke down trying to grasp the reality of the situation we were in.”
The inquiry was told that Lorraine was buried in her mother Ann’s wedding dress.
Ms Kerrigan said her father Godfrey, who died in 2018, became consumed for the rest of his life with fighting for justice for his daughter.
Her statement said: “I remember my father cried so much he had ulcers in his eyes.”
Inquiry chairman Lord Turnbull reflected on the fact that Lorraine had been working in an Oxfam shop on the day she died.
He said: “This leads me to reflect on the contrast between the utter admiration which one would have for a young girl such as Lorraine who demonstrated such values and attitudes as to spend her time trying to contribute something to the lives of those with less advantages than herself.
“On the other hand, the contrast which is revealed in the moral depravity of those who would walk away from a car loaded with explosives in the middle of a main street on a sunny, Saturday afternoon in the sure knowledge that devastation would ensure shortly thereafter.”