OMAGH REACTION: A priest yesterday spoke of the solidarity between the people of Madrid and those of Buncrana in Co Donegal following yesterday's bomb attacks in the Spanish city.
Two students from Madrid were among the 29 people who were killed in the "Real IRA" bomb attack in Omagh on August 15th, 1998. They were staying with host families in Buncrana as part of a student exchange programme.
Fernando Blasco Baselga (12) and Rocia Abad Ramos (23), the group leader of the Spanish students, died when the students paid a visit to Omagh on the day of the explosion. Two 12-year-old schoolboys from Buncrana who accompanied the Spanish group, James Barker and Sean McLaughlin, also died in the blast, as did eight-year-old Oran Doherty from Buncrana.
Father Shane Bradley, who was the curate in Buncrana at the time of the Omagh atrocity, said that the links between the Co Donegal town and Madrid were still very strong.
"What happened in Madrid today brings you right back to the day and the aftermath of the Omagh bombing. A horror and evil have been perpetrated on the people of Madrid, and it's something we went through in Buncrana after Omagh.
"It will take a long time for the people of Madrid to recover from this, and hopefully they will be able to rebuild their shattered lives.
"But, based on my experience in Buncrana, they will always carry a deep wound which will always hurt," he said.
Meanwhile a member of a host family in Buncrana said yesterday that his wife recognised on television one of their former guest Spanish students being stretched away from the wreckage of one of the bomb-damaged trains.
Mr Francis Crawford said his wife, Kay, saw the student, named Maria, on the television.
"Maria has stayed with us in the past at part of the Spanish exchange programme. She's a lovely girl. Kay believes she saw her on a stretcher being taken away injured from the scene of one of the explosions," he said.
"Maria stayed with us eight years ago as a mature student. Kay recognised her immediately being taken from train wreckage on a stretcher. Kay said she didn't seem to be too seriously injured.
"Sadly we know something about the trauma being suffered by the people of Madrid, something about the wait to see if their loved ones are coming home or not. We went through the same after Omagh," said Mr Crawford.