Family say they broke down when identifying teenager's body

The family of a 15-year-old girl who was killed in the blast have described the trauma of having to identify her body.

Lorraine Wilson had been working in a charity shop on the day of the attack with her best friend Samantha McFarland.

She had planned to go and buy a new uniform and shoes ahead of returning to school after the summer holidays.

She and her friend were among the 29 people who were killed by the Real IRA bomb in 1998, including a woman who was pregnant with twins.

Warning: This page contains distressing details

In a statement read by a lawyer to the public inquiry, Lorraine's sister recalled the "injuries from the shrapnel wounds, mostly to her face" as her body lay on a stretcher, covered by curtains.

"The curtains around her were drenched in water and blood," the statement read.

"We all broke down trying to grasp the reality of the situation we were in. It was very traumatic.

"It felt like all the air had gone out of the room."

The inquiry heard how her mother screamed and had to leave the room.

Earlier the inquiry heard from Kevin Skelton, whose wife Philomena was killed in the bomb.

Mr Skelton said he did not trust the Irish government to co-operate with the ongoing public inquiry.

He said that without such co-operation the inquiry was "dead in the water" and challenged the inquiry to provide the truth about the atrocity.

Mr Skelton said he did not trust the Irish or British governments to deliver answers.

He added: "I met more secretaries of state nearly than I had hot dinners, and not one of them ever did anything for us.

"But the Irish government, I don't see them playing ball with this inquiry."

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has previously pledged that the Irish government will give full co-operation to the inquiry.

Mr Skelton also told the enquiry: "All I want is truth".

"Are we going to get the truth that on that particular day, in a garrison town, why was the Army not brought in to clear the street?" he said.

"On that particular day, soldiers out in the camp, not one of them was used until the bomb went off.

"I would like somebody to answer that question.

Mrs Skelton was 39 when she was killed.

Mr Skelton told the inquiry the aftermath of the blast was "pandemonium".

"I looked at things that no human being should have to look at," he said.

He said, of the sounds and smells: "I can't get that out of my head".

Mr and Mrs Skelton and three of their four children had been shopping in Omagh town centre when the bomb went off.

Mrs Skelton only visited Omagh twice a year - once in summer and once at Christmas - and was in the town to buy school uniforms.

He said after he found his wife, who was known as Mena, his focus turned to finding his daughters.

He told the inquiry he could still see the bomb go off, including how one building "folded like a book".

"How so many people survived, it's a mystery to me," he said.

Mr Skelton said he and Mrs Skelton, who he described as a "homebird", had been together "two weeks shy of 20 years".

Veda Short, one of three staff members at Watterson's clothes shop who was killed in the bomb, was also commemorated at the inquiry on Monday.

The mother-of-four had welcomed a grandson just the day before the attack.

Mrs Short, who was 56 when she was murdered, met the baby boy in hospital, held him and had taken photographs of him.

A lawyer speaking on behalf of Mrs Short's children told the inquiry the "family-orientated" shop manager had just been getting over the death of her mother the previous October.

She was described as a "loving wife, mother and grandmother" who was very active within her church.

Mrs Short and her husband, who "loved to play bowls in the church hall", had recently returned home from holiday in Alicante in Spain.

Following Mrs Short's death, the family said her husband was "a broken man" and subsequently had health troubles.

His death at 64, six years after the blast, was described as "another casualty".

Two of Mrs Short's colleagues from Watterson's, Ann McCombe and Geraldine Breslin, were among the victims.

Mrs Short's children said their mother was taken away from them in a brutal manner.

The fourth victim commemorated on Monday was "kind" and "funny" accountancy student Julia Hughes.

The 21-year-old was was due to begin her final year at Dundee University and was awarded her bachelor's degree after her death.

A prize was later set up in her name and given each year to a student who has overcome difficulties and adversity.

Ms Hughes had been home in Omagh for the summer holidays and was working in a photography shop on the day of the attack.

She was planning to return to Scotland the next month.

In a statement, made on behalf of her twin brother Justin Hughes, her "tragic and senseless loss" was said to be "insurmountable" for the family, whose lives have never been the same.

"The prize is a huge part of Julia's legacy," the statement read.

"It gives us great pleasure to think that her memory will live on in Dundee University, where she had been so happy."

At her funeral, her father said there was "absolutely no answer on this side of eternity" as to why his 21-year-old daughter died.

Three days after the attack, the Real IRA released a statement claiming responsibility for the explosion.

It apologised to "civilian" victims and said its targets had been commercial.

Almost 27 years on, no-one has been convicted of carrying out the murders by a criminal court.

In 2009, the judge in that case ruled four of the men - Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly were all liable for the Omagh bomb.

The four men were ordered to pay a total of £1.6m in damages to the relatives, but appeals against the ruling delayed the compensation process.

A fifth man, Seamus McKenna, was acquitted in the civil action and later died in a roofing accident in 2013.

After years of campaigning by relatives, the public inquiry was set to up examine if the Real IRA attack could have been prevented by UK authorities.

This phase of the inquiry is continuing to hear powerful individual testimonies from relatives who lost loved ones in the explosion.

The bombers planned and launched the attack from the Republic of Ireland and the Irish government has promised to co-operate with the inquiry.

However, the victims' relatives wanted the Irish government to order its own separate public inquiry.

Dublin previously indicated there was no new evidence to merit such a move.