An application was made to the coroner yesterday to have the unborn twins of an Omagh bomb victim treated as full subjects of inquest proceedings, and to have it acknowledged, therefore, that 31 people were killed in the bombing, rather than 29.
Mr Barry Fox, the solicitor representing the family of Mrs Avril Ann Monaghan, made the application, saying the twins had achieved their final trimester and one could argue that they were fully developed human beings.
Mrs Monaghan (30), who was pregnant with the twins, her 18-month-old daughter, Maura, and her mother, Mrs Mary Grimes (65), were found dead along with six others in S.D. Kells' shop near the site of the explosion.
Mr Fox said "the lack of recognition" afforded to the unborn children had caused distress to their father and the other family members, as they felt that the twins were as much part of the family as any of the other three children.
Mr Fox said he appreciated the legal difficulties of definition involved in this, but said he wished to draw on and quote from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights provisions in support of his application.
The coroner, Mr John Leckey, said he would have to be persuaded on the legitimacy of the application. It seemed to him that under existing law the inquest must be restricted to 29 persons.
Mrs Gemma Loughran, counsel to the coroner, suggested that the matter could be dealt with on the day allotted for the inquests into the deaths of Mrs Monaghan, her daughter and her mother. It was agreed to defer the matter to allow Mr Fox to submit documentation in relation to his application.