Around £40,000 has been raised by the Irish community in Brussels in support of the Omagh Fund in a drive that culminated in a 41/2-hour sell-out traditional music concert on Monday night.
Belgians and Irish packed one of Brussels's most popular music venues, the Ancienne Belgique, to hear a line-up of musicians who would have done the very best Irish festival proud. The musicians - Altan, De Dannan and Eleanor Shanley, Frances Black, Declan Sinnott and Eddie Lynch, Paddy Keenan, Paddy Glackin and Michael O Domhnail, La Lugh, Liam O'Flynn, Arty McGlynn, and Rod McVey - all gave their services free.
The concert and a number of ancillary events in Brussels's many Irish pubs was organised by the Northern Ireland Group. Its chairman, Mr Malachi Vallely, paid warm tribute to the huge range of support that had come from Irish organisations in the city - from the Irish Club to the theatre group, the football club, and the Irish Belgian Business Association.
Contributions were also received from the city administration and the Flemish and Walloon governments.
The concert was attended by the chairman of the Omagh Trust, Mr Sean O'Dwyer, who spoke of the depths of compassion evoked throughout Ireland by the bombing and of what he said were the remarkable effects of the recent Late Late Show.
