Emergency service workers yesterday told the Omagh Bombing Inquiry what they saw in the aftermath “should only have been seen in a movie”.
Twenty-nine people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed when the Real IRA bombed the Co Tyrone town in August 1998.
A public inquiry at the Strule Arts Centre has been hearing personal statements from those affected by the massacre.
Richard Quiqley told the inquiry he was a young paramedic and Omagh was the first explosion he had ever attended.
He gave evidence that he had helped transfer victims in body bags from the scene to a temporary morgue.
He said: “I recall seeing the number of body bags laid out and each had its own area. All in rows. The size of the gym and the number of the body bags on the floor was something that should only have been seen in a movie.”
Paramedic Richard Quigley (PA)
Mr Quigley said he was on duty at Derry’s Altnagelvin Hospital that Saturday when a “call code red” alert was received.
He said as ambulances went to the scene, he set up saline drips and filled a kit bag with bandages, gauze and slings.
He told the inquiry the roads were quieter than usual and said he was “stressed by not knowing what to expect”.
It was the first time he had attended an explosion.
The inquiry heard that when they arrived at Market Street in the Co Tyrone town that “no patients were to be seen”.
He added: “It was oddly quiet. No screaming of patients; evidence of that explosion and the smell.
“I remember the smell of beer was strong at the bomb site as it flowed from the remains of the bar opposite.”
He told the inquiry that they moved into the “body recovery stage”, and he had to source additional body bags from fire service and military as there was only a limited number in each ambulance.
He said: “The body bags with the remains of the dead had been moved into shops away from eyes and cameras.”
After bodies were placed into the body bags, Mr Quigley said he physically checked them to identify the head from the feet so they could be put on stretchers in the correct way.
He said: “What shocked me was not being able to identify the head or the feet of the patients. Clearly other items were inside the bags. It was the same with all the bags I touched. I got frustrated and kicked a piece of shrapnel. I got told off by a police officer. ‘Evidence’.”
Mr Quigley said the ambulances drove the bodies to a temporary morgue set up in a gym in an army barracks.
He told how he had “yet to walk around Market Street or to the peace garden”, a memorial set up in the aftermath.
“I will never forget that day as it is my sister’s birthday and will always trigger memories,” he said.
Later, counsel to the inquiry Paul Greaney KC read statements from three survivors — Maeve O’Brien, her sister Dervlagh, and Damian Murphy.
Maeve O’Brien was 13 and had been shopping in Omagh on the day of the attack. She said people were moved to Market Street, where the bomb exploded, but her grandmother said they should move to another location.
She said this was the reason she and her family were not physically harmed.
Her statement said: “My life has been divided into a time of living before and after the Omagh bomb. It was the end of childhood and the final loss of innocence for me.
“Even now, I can viscerally remember the sound of the bomb — the strange electrical smell and the haze coming from Market Street.”
She added: “I remember the panic and fear in everyone’s movements after the initial blast.
“I have a true understanding of the saying, your blood running cold.”
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Her sister, Dervlagh, was eight years old on the day the bomb exploded.
She recalled the power of the blast causing her to fall to the ground and crawling underneath a car for safety.
She said the subsequent scenes have had a lifelong impact on her.
She said: “In my 20s I developed panic attacks. I took myself to Omagh minor injuries unit, as I believed I was having a heart attack.”
She added: “I feel my experience will have a lifelong negative impact on the quality of my life.” Mr Murphy was training to be a teacher in 1998 and had gone into Omagh to send some emails.
He said the bomb exploded as he reached the town’s library.
“I came back through the smoke and dust to Lower Market Street,” he said.
“The screams and smells were overwhelming. I first saw people come past me with loads of bleeding.”
He said he met three Spanish girls who were bleeding and he gave them paper towels. “I was somewhat dazed as I entered what looked like Market Street. My immediate thought was to get people out of here.
“I jumped in a window and grabbed a chair. I saw a policeman. I shouted at him and said ‘Come on, let’s get people out of here. We put people on the chair and lifted them down for easier access to cars and ambulances.
“I can’t remember how many times we did this.”