LEADING Omagh bombing campaigner Michael Gallagher has revealed that he suffered a stroke while attending the public inquiry into the atrocity, saying he believes the strain of his long campaign for answers contributed to it.
Mr Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aiden died in the Real IRA attack, said he began experiencing symptoms while attending hearings in Belfast.
The bombing on August 15, 1998 killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. The inquiry is examining whether the attack could reasonably have been prevented by UK state authorities.
Despite feeling unwell, Michael Gallagher returned home before later attending South West Acute Hospital in Enniskillen, where he was admitted for four nights.
Mr Gallagher praised the Fermanagh hospital for the care he received. "The medical, nursing and ancillary staff just could not have been better. It's a hospital I would not hesitate going back to" he said.
While there, he was encouraged during his stay in the hospital's stroke ward, as he watched patients leaving after treatment. "I thought, if it's God's will, I will walk out of here. And that's exactly what I did do," he said.
Michael Gallagher(RollingNews.ie)
DETERMINED not to miss the Inquiry proceedings, the Tyrone man admitted to urging doctors to allow him home early. Following discharge, he returned to the Inquiry sitting in south Belfast the following morning.
The veteran campaigner said the health scare came against the backdrop of nearly three decades spent agitating for answers surrounding the bombing. “Bereaved families won a civil action in 2009 against four men found liable for the bombing.
"I have put my life on hold for 28 years" Mr Gallagher told The Irish Post. For many victims' relatives, he explained, the search for truth and accountability has become a defining part of their lives.
"Even during an evening like this, I'm sitting reading materials and trying to work out things. I thought in fact I was going to take a nervous breakdown" he revealed.
While stressing that the inquiry itself was not to blame, he said the sheer volume of evidence, documents and data accumulated over years of campaigning had become overwhelming.
"I think it was just all the information. At that point my head wasn't capable of taking it all in."
Despite the health setback, Mr Gallagher remains committed to seeing the inquiry through. He praised witnesses who this week appeared at the Belfast hearings, including former Police Ombudsman Nuala O'Loan, police reviewer Brian McVicker and BBC Panorama journalist John Ware, describing their evidence as factual, honest and compelling.
He added, "It is a privilege, an absolute privilege to be there.”
Mr Gallagher pledged to return in early November to hear highly anticipated evidence from former RUC chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan.
