Mother of Buncrana boy killed in Omagh Bombing pays tribute to her 'lovely, lively' Shaun
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A statement of commemoration to 12-year-old Shaun McLaughlin, prepared by his mother, Patricia, was read at the Omagh Bombing Inquiry on Monday by her sister Marjorie McDaid. on the fourth day of proceedings.
The purpose of the Public Inquiry is to investigate whether the atrocity that happened in Omagh on August 15, 1998 could have been prevented by UK state authorities.
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Hide AdBefore the examination of evidence begins, the focus of the inquiry will be on the lives of 29 people and two unborn twin girls that were lost.


The Inquiry heard how Shaun was born weighing just five and a half pounds, following a ‘very complicated birth’, in which he and his mother ‘nearly died’.
After making a full recovery, he grew up to love playing football with his friends, cycling and ‘doing things young boys do.’
"He was a lively, lovely boy. He was always happy and content and always found something to smile about,” said Patricia, who sat alongside her sister at the Inquiry.
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Hide AdOn the day of the bombing, Shaun was ‘so excited’ to go the Ulster American Folk Park on a bus trip with Spanish exchange students and local children, like he had done the previous two years.


Patricia told how it ‘never occurred to her’ that the bus trip would travel into Omagh town, so when she heard that a bus from Buncrana had been ‘caught up’ in a bomb in Omagh, she did not think her son would be involved.
However, on arriving back from getting groceries in town, a neighbour, who was crying, asked if ‘Shaun was alright’.
"I said: ‘Of course, why wouldn’t he be?’ She then told me the bus with the children had been caught up in the bomb,”
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Hide AdPatricia put on the news and ‘everyone in the houses around me seemed to come out’.
She saw ‘very upset’ Bernie Doherty, the mother of Oran Doherty, who was also killed and lived a couple of doors down.
The families were in contact with the police and some other families got news to travel to hospitals as their children had been injured.
They were told the bus that had left Buncrana that morning would be arriving back at 9pm with the rest of the children. Patricia said they thought there was a chance Shaun and Oran would be on that bus.
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Hide AdThey travelled to the school and Patricia’s husband told her to wait in the car with his brother.
"I sat and watched all the other children coming off the bus, but Shaun never got off the bus.”
"I headed toward the bus and the parish priest was standing at the top of the steps, along with the sergeant and the driver. We knew the driver and I asked if anyone had seen Shaun or Oran and nobody had. I knew then that was it then.”
Patricia’s husband and Oran’s father decided to travel to Omagh and Patricia said it then ‘turned into the longest night of my life’.
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Hide AdThe police phoned the house a number of times ‘to see what Shaun was wearing and if he had any identification marks, scars or anything which would allow them to identify him’.
Patricia said, as the calls continued with more frequency, she ‘knew this was not looking good’ and was worried the police were trying to identify Shaun’s body.
Her husband was meanwhile visiting hospitals to try to locate Shaun and also went to the Leisure Centre in Omagh. where there ‘sheets of paper with everybody's name on it to let relatives know where the injured had been sent.’
“But the later it went on, the worse it got. About 7:40 am, John rang me to say he had found Shaun and that he was dead.”
Patricia outlined how the family was told it would be ‘Tuesday at the earliest’ before they could bring Shaun home, which made her very upset. A friend rang the police on their behalf and they received permission to go to see Shaun at the mortuary on the Sunday.
Patricia said that she ‘had to go’ as until she saw her son, she ‘still thought that he was going to come home.’
She told the Inquiry that, when they were bringing Shaun home on the Monday, ‘there must have been 30 to 40 cars that went up to Omagh and we brought him back.’
“The crowds of people on that route were unbelievable.”
"From when we left through all the towns, it was on both sides of the street, and those people must have been waiting a long time because we left much later than they were due to leave, but they were still standing.
She added: “And when we got to the bottom of the town of Buncrana, there were thousands stood at the side of the road.
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Hide Ad“The people visiting our house queued right down the road around the corner in two lines all day and all night. It never stopped. It was a distraction, but at that stage I was somewhere else, I just didn't know what was going on or what was happening. I did not want anything to sink in, so I was blocking everything out.”
Patricia told the Inquiry she felt as if Shaun’s funeral had ‘been a total farce’.
“There were too many important people there from the political parties. They all even had reserved seats but there was no reserved seats for the three families who were burying their children.
Two of my brothers even had to ask people to move out of their seat so that we could sit down.
"My son was buried before I could even get near his grave.”
Patricia said that Shaun’s death had a great impact on his two siblings, Elaine and Christopher, who struggled to cope with his death.
She added that they also had the media to contend with.
"They were camped outside the house on the other side of the road but they weren't disrespectful, to be fair. Unless I spoke to them, they didn't bother me. I can't exactly remember what I said to them, the attention was overwhelming.”
Patricia added that while some people say time is a great healer, she does not think this is true for her.
“I feel the same today as when it happened.”
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Hide AdShe added: “If somebody had said to me before I lost a child that you will feel exactly the same 26 years later, I wouldn't have believed them. I would have thought maybe a couple of years that you would you be broken hearted but that you would still move on, it's going to have to ease, but it just doesn't. You get strength from being able to live through it but you are never going to cope with it or understand it, or come to terms with it.”
Patricia said the ‘constant battle to get answers and find out what happened that day is relentless’,
"None of the families deserved what happened that day. How each of us in our own way have had to fight for answers is just awful, it makes me angry at times.
"I hope that this Inquiry will provide the answers as to what happened that day and hopefully that the cost of Shaun's life and all those other lives so tragically lost can provide some hope for us all.
“We have not gotten over things completely, we never will, but we have learned to live with it. Some days are, of course, harder than others. My first born baby will always be in our minds and in our hearts.
“Shaun personified the hope in this island following the Good Friday Agreement with the hope of peace. Only a few months before the bomb Shaun had written a poem which he presented to the then President of Ireland, Mary McAleese.
"The poem read:
"Orange and green, it doesn't matter,
United now won't shatter our dream,
Scatter the seeds of peace over our land,
So we can travel hand in hand across the bridge of hope."
A presentation of photographs of Sean was shown to the Inquiry, which was accompanied by the song, called Bridge of Hope and performed by the Omagh Community Choir. It contained the words of Shaun’s poem.
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Hide AdInquiry Chairperson Lord Turnbull expressed his gratitude to Patricia ‘for the strength which she has shown in preparing her statement for this Inquiry.’