The father of one of the Omagh victims has said he would be applying for the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, to appear before the inquest to give evidence on the Garda's part in the investigation into the "Real IRA" bombing, which left 29 people dead two years ago. Mr Michael Gallagher, whose son, Adrian, was one of those killed in the explosion, said he was checking whether an application for Mr Byrne's appearance before the coroner, Mr John Leckey, had already been made by any of the families' solicitors.
"If no such application has been made, I am prepared to go ahead and apply for Mr Byrne or for his Assistant Commissioner, Mr Kevin Carty, to be called before the inquest," Mr Gallagher said.
"I feel the gardai have much to contribute to this inquest. After all, a major part of the investigation is going on south of the Border and they are the only ones who have actually got somebody in custody in connection with the bombing," Mr Gallagher told The Irish Times.
Earlier, Omagh's most senior RUC officer, Supt William James Baxter, broke down briefly as he told the inquest the only people capable of making a difference on the day of the bombing would have been the bombers and their accomplices, who had given confused warnings.
"Only they had the ability to say that the car-bomb was outside Kells shop on Market Street, the colour and make of the car and the registration number. But they didn't do that" Supt Baxter said.
"My officers went on High Street expecting that a car-bomb was parked there. Every one of those officers put their lives at risk trying to protect this community. Unfortunately, that was not to be."
Supt Baxter's voice was shaking as he said: "The person who planted it got out, saw women and children on the street and walked away. He did absolutely nothing to prevent people being murdered in Omagh."
Responding to detailed and at times aggressive questioning by Mr Michael Mansfield QC, Supt Baxter rejected suggestions that there should have been a contingency plan for bomb alerts in the town. "Bearing in mind our history where terrorists have placed secondary devices to catch out police officers, if I go about setting up a plan I could well be directing officers to their death. Officers on the ground must make decisions as to where they feel is the safest place to set up their cordon point," he said.
Some of the victims' families afterwards backed up Supt Baxter's words, saying the RUC had done its best to deal with the situation and should not have to shoulder the blame when the real culprits were those who planted the bomb.
Supt Baxter disclosed that Omagh had been subjected to 68 bomb scares since the lethal blast. The most recent, last Wednesday, when the caller used the same code-word as the one given on the day of the atrocity, took 42 minutes to clear the town centre.
On the day of the bombing, there were only 29 minutes from when officers in Omagh learned of the warnings until the bomb exploded, Supt Baxter explained.
Officers had to check and evacuate about 180 premises and check close to 150 parked vehicles, as well as account for hundreds of people in the shops and premises, he said. "There is absolutely no way that an area of that size could be evacuated in less than 29 minutes."
Const Norman Haslett told the inquest earlier that the dead had been treated with the "utmost dignity", adding: "When picking them up we handled them gently and with great care. They were treated as people, not merely dead bodies, and treated in a way we would expect other people to treat our loved ones had they been caught up in a similar explosion." His evidence was welcomed by some of the families as "a great comfort".
A British army doctor, Capt Samuel Potter, who pronounced life extinct on 20 bodies and one body part on the day, described a colleague's shocked reaction on turning over the body of Ms Avril Monaghan, who was 34 weeks pregnant with twins, only to find the body of her 18-month-old daughter, Maura, underneath. The Monaghan family's solicitor, Mr Barry Fox, said the family had been comforted to learn the little girl at least died with her mother.
Mr Robert Bonar, a civilian who helped with the search for dead and wounded, described finding a teenage girl sitting on the ground amid the rubble holding a dead girl's hand. She did not know the dead girl but did not want her to be alone, she told Mr Bonar.
Mr Bonar also helped treat an injured Spanish boy with a large gash on his left side.
Individual inquests into the deaths of Mr Alan Radford (16), Mr Fred White (60) and his son, Mr Brian White (26), were also held. Mr White, a local Ulster Unionist councillor, and his son had been closest to the scene of the explosion and died instantly. The hearing will resume at 10 a.m. today.