To those who loved her, she was priceless. But the British government valued
the life of Lorraine Wilson at £7,500 when they paid compensation to her
family.
"It was disgraceful. To be honest, we shouldn't have taken it," says her
father. Godfrey Wilson speaks so vividly of his beloved 15-year-old daughter
that you expect her to come bursting through the door of their Omagh home.
"You couldn't wish for a better girl, she had a heart of corn. She was
working in the Oxfam shop on the day of the bomb. That was typical Lorraine,
always helping somebody.
"She wouldn't let her mother or I peel a potato when we came home from work.
'Have a wee cup of tea and I'll do the dinner', she'd say. For weeks after
she died, we didn't move a pot or pan in the kitchen. We wanted to leave
them as they were, the things Lorraine had last touched."
The Wilsons will be among those taking part in a service in the town's
remembrance garden to mark the seventh anniversary of the atrocity.
Twenty-nine people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed and
400 injured in the Real IRA bomb.
Every year, the families say, they have invited Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern
to the commemoration but neither has bothered to attend, sending colleagues
instead.
If the British Prime Minister did visit, he would find immense anger at the
level of compensation to the bereaved. The Sunday Tribune has uncovered
pitifully low payments.
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden, 21, died in the bomb, finally settled
his battle with the Compensation Agency in Omagh County Court last month.
The agency, which works on behalf of the Northern Secretary, pledges "to pay
fair and reasonable compensation" where liability is accepted, and to
provide an "efficient and sensitive" service.
Gallagher claims it totally failed regarding Omagh. He received a low
five-figure sum which he declines to disclose because it hasn't yet been
paid.
"It's not even the price of a good quality new car.
"They say they don't put a price on human life but they do, and it's very
low. After Omagh, the government uttered many pious words but they were
meaningless.
"Money can't bring back the dead but it does relieve stress for bereaved
families. People are coping with enough without having to worry about
bills. They offer you all this therapy but often at the expense of practical
assistance.
"The Compensation Agency's sole aim is to save the government as much money
as possible. They're totally ruthless. I asked them to consider what I had
lost. You rear your children with the comfort of knowing they'll care for
you later on.
"As I got older, Aiden would have done the shopping and cleaning for the
love of me. Who will do that now? The Compensation Agency don't listen to
things like that. It's no different with Omagh than with all the other bombs
that went before. They know of no value to life except the commercial value.
"There are cases where the wives of street sweepers, or people in other low-
paid jobs got £5,000 when their husbands were killed. The wives of company
directors would get £500,000. They can talk all they want about human
rights but people are unequal in the eyes of the law. "
The Gallaghers ran a garage – Michael fixing engines, Aiden specialising in
the bodywork. "We were more like friends than father and son. He was very
hard-working. Looking back, I'm sorry he didn't get out more, enjoy himself,
see a bit of the world."
Aiden had been buying jeans in town on the day of the explosion. The bomb
went off at 3.10pm, scattering human limbs over the pavement, burying men,
women and children under the debris in Market Street.
Seven years later, it's a prosperous thoroughfare with bustling shops and
small businesses. "I avoid Market Street as much as possible because it
makes me sad," says Michael. "In Omagh, they built the buildings bigger and
better than before they were bombed.
"The businessmen's compensation came quickly. They didn't have to go through
years fighting in court. The Compensation Agency were incredibly mean and
begrudging about everything. I know a woman who lost all her teeth in the
bomb. They started arguing about paying for false ones."
Michael compares the British government's "miserly response" to the US
administration's largesse after September 11th. "The Americans paid £1.3
million to each of the 3,000 bereaved families, including the British
victims.
"Compare that to what we received. British victims of 9/11 were treated with
respect. British victims of Omagh were treated like people living in a third
world country."
By the standards of other Omagh bereaved, Kevin Skelton is "lucky". He
received £130,000 for his wife Mena, 39. "They worked it out that she was
worth about £5,000 a year over so many years," he says.
A lorry driver, Kevin hasn't been able to work since his wife died. "There
were four kids to raise who had just lost their mother. Tracey stopped
eating, she became almost anorexic. The three girls are fine now but my son
Ray is still struggling.
"He was 16 when Mena died. He was very close to her. If his mother was
cleaning the windows outside, he'd be cleaning them inside. I hope he can
straighten himself out."
Mena was buying new school uniforms for her children when the bomb exploded.
Kevin was in the shop next door. "We were only three feet apart, just a
wall dividing us, yet she was killed and I received a cut."
He spent an hour-and-a-half digging at the rubble. His daughter Shauna, 14,
suffered heavy facial scarring in the blast. "Shauna was treated like a lump
of meat in her compensation case.
"She had been to doctors for three years – her medical papers were several
feet high – but when we got to court the government's lawyers wanted to
examine her.
"They didn't even take her into a private room. They did it in the foyer of
the court building. One of them said it would have been worse if she was
scarred on both sides of her face.
"Shauna was upset but I was more upset. If my own solicitor hadn't been
there, I'd have thumped the government's one." Despite everything, Shauna is
at St Mary's teacher training college in Belfast and "doing brilliantly",
her father says.
"Her face isn't so bad in the summer but it gets sore in winter with the
frost. The doctors told her she had two choices – to wear a face mask or a
polystyrene cover over it at night.
"Shauna said there was a third option – to wear nothing. She doesn't try to
hide her scars. She has long hair but she ties it back. The doctor asked her
how boys would react but Shauna says if they don't like her as she is, they
can get stuffed."
Victor Barker whose son James, 12, was killed describes the compensation
system as "odious" but says the Real IRA bombers, and the Provisional IRA
figures who "originally taught them their so-called skills", should be made
to pay compensation.
The families of those bereaved in the 1989 Hillsborough football disaster
received compensation for watching it on TV. "But we in Omagh who
experienced the horror in the flesh were refused," says Godfrey Wilson.
"I went to court four times to try to get compensation for the awful scenes
I had witnessed when searching for Lorraine. When I heard the bomb, I went
to Tyrone County hospital.
"I walked through blood in the corridors. People were lying there, injured
and dying. I couldn't find Lorraine so I had to go to the leisure centre to
give her description. I told them she had long brown hair and was wearing
jeans, trainers and a blue fleece.
"I waited there all night until they said they thought they'd found her."
It wasn't until 11 am. the next day that Godfrey identified his daughter in
a makeshift morgue in the British Army camp.
"Some of her hair was blown off in the bomb. I checked her teeth, because
she had always cared for them, and they were okay. There was a wee tear in
the corner of her eye and I wiped it away with my handkerchief.
"I don't have physical wounds so the government thinks I don't deserve
compensation. Our family life has never been the same. My oldest son tried
to kill himself twice, my youngest is still reluctant to leave the house
alone. The bomb in Omagh didn't just stay in the town centre. It entered our
living-rooms, and it hasn't gone away."
