"Bear in mind these dead"

Former member Sir Des Rea speaking to the Club Monday 13 February said he was delighted to be back and appreciated the chance to address the Club. He noted that his book published in September 2016 and co written by Sir Hugh OrdeBear in mind these dead was an examination of the role of policing immediately before and subsequent to the Omagh Bombing in 1998 and in an intense and thought provoking address he described some of the key points from each of the chapters within the book.

Noting firstly the sequence of events on the day of the bomb and the devastation and utter carnage that occurred on that day. He spoke about the injuries of some of the victims, the numbers who lost their lives and how many families were impacted by injuries or the death of more than one family member. Sir Des confirmed that is thought to be the single worst atrocity of the troubles and noted that nobody had been successfully tried for the bombing.

Sir Des pointed out that it was normal that within a year of this type of incident there would be an internal process review - in this case Detective Chief Superintendent Brian McVicker's report and confirmed that, notwithstanding there had been no complaint as a result of the Fulton allegations of bad practice, the Police Ombudsman's Office decided there was sufficient public interest for an investigation into the police actions. Their investigation was ultimately extended to look at the conclusions of the McVicar report and subsequently concluded that it was unlikely that the information provided by Fulton would have prevented the bombing.

Sir Des confirmed that the Policing Board, at that stage in its infancy, was responsible for implementing the Ombudsman's recommendations which he listed and described some of the harrowing meetings the Board had with victims and survivor groups. He finished by commenting that the bombing was significant not only for mass murder, but that it led to a profound change in and the holding to account of policing.

Sir Des was happy to answer the many questions that members had and offered copies of the Book to Members at £15.00 per copy, donating £5.00 of that to Belfast Rotary Club Charities.