Omagh Bombing

The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement of 1998 marked real progress but the early release of prisoners, decommissioning and police reform involved difficult negotiations. The Omagh bomb proved that the violence was not over. On 15 August 1998, a group of Spanish exchange students who had been staying in Buncrana, County Donegal, had visited the Ulster American Folk Park before going into Omagh town centre.

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Many of them signed this visitors’ book, including Fernando Blasco Baselga, a 12 year old boy who was killed by a small piece of shrapnel in Omagh when a car bomb exploded that afternoon. His leader, Rocio Abad Ramos (aged 23), and three local children travelling with the group, James Barker (aged 12), Oran Doherty (aged 8) and Sean McLaughlin (aged 12) were also among the 29 people killed.