The Real IRA bombed Omagh in 1998. Twenty-nine people perished. Deirdre Younge, a former Current Affairs Editor in RTE, wrote this article for Village magazine in November 2021. Since then, the British Government has established an inquiry into the atrocity. It is being chaired by Judge Alan Turnbull.
Peter Keeley, a British agent who had been in the Provisional IRA and was connected to the Real IRA, furnished his RUC CID handlers with information about the bomb attack before it was launched.
Michael Gallagher lost a son in the attack. He campaigned for decades for an inquiry into Omagh. Keeley’s information was regarded by a High Court, Judge Mark Horner, as central to his decision to find in favour of Gallagher in forcing the Government to set up the inquiry into Omagh.
This article examines that intelligence and the fall out of the Omagh investigation for the RUC.