A survivor of the Omagh bombing has told how he is haunted by guilt over the death of his niece, who was to be the flower girl at his wedding.
Garry McGillion suffered severe injuries in the Real IRA blast, which occurred in August 1998, just one week before he was due to be married.
Mr McGillion told the Omagh Bombing Inquiry that he had travelled into the Co Tryone town on that day with his partner Donna-Marie, his sister Tracy and his 20-month-old niece Breda Devine.
They were there to buy shoes for Breda for the wedding, the inquiry heard.
Mr McGillion said there had been a “real party atmosphere” in the town centre on that Saturday.
He said: “It was the start of our life together, a new chapter in both our lives.”
Following a bomb alert, the group was moved to the lower part of the town centre. Mr McGillion said Donna-Marie was pushing Breda in a pram.
He said: “We had come across the street, speaking to people, people were wishing us the best of luck for the following week.
“I stepped in between the cars, onto the footpath and it was like a massive electric shock.
He added: “When it happened and I got myself back onto my feet it was as if somebody was turning the radio up.
“It started with nothing and then it went to a dull sound and then I could hear alarms going off and then it went to full blast. I could hear children shouting for their mums, mums shouting for their children, people shouting for loved ones.”
He told the inquiry that a cloud of dust had settled over the area.
He said: “The area was dark. You could taste it, you could smell it, you could feel the dust.
“It was like you had closed your eyes and opened them up to a different world.
“There was a high-pitched squeal in my ears and it wasn’t until I put my hands up I realised my shirt was on fire. I ripped my shirt off.
“I put my hand up to my ear and I realised that I had a hole in the back of my head.”
Mr McGillion told the inquiry that he later realised that parts of his body were on fire.
He said: “At that time I didn’t realise how bad it was. My main thought was with Donna-Marie and Breda and Tracy.”
He said he found Donna-Marie underneath a large shop sign.
He said he asked her three times where Breda was, and on the third occasion she moved her hand and it was still on the pram.
He told the inquiry that he managed to move the sign and pull Donna-Marie and Breda clear.
Mr McGillion said: “Those images will forever be engraved on my brain. I will not go into the detail of these.
“Trust me, they have haunted me every day and night for the past 26 years.”
He said he took Breda into his arms and shouted towards her mother Tracy.
“I told her I had her, I’d got her, I’ll look after her.”
He ran up the street and handed Breda over to a traffic warden to receive medical help before attempting to return to the bomb site.
His statement to the inquiry said: “This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life.
“Breda was still breathing, I felt her heartbeat but I knew that she needed urgent help.
“I’ve learnt over the past 26 years that you have to make difficult choices, that you will neither like nor want.
“This is one of the most harrowing memories I have.
“As to this day I can still feel Breda’s heartbeat on my chest.”
He added: “Holding her, there was the faintest little heartbeat. I knew I had to get her out.
“To this day I still feel that heartbeat.”
When he attempted to help his sister and partner, he was told he needed to go to get medical help, the inquiry heard.
He said: “I remember people carrying bottles of water and pouring bottles of water over me, over my burns.
“I told Tracy I would help Breda, I told her I would look after her, I had got her, I have to say those words to this day haunt me, that I was going to look after her.”
Mr McGillion was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. He had suffered third-degree burns to more than a third of the right side of his body and the back of his head.
He said: “The physical pain was hard to describe. It was unbelievable, unbearable.”
But Mr McGillion said the worst part was when he was told in hospital that Breda had died.
He said: “I knew something was wrong. My dad came in, my mum came in with the doctors, a lovely priest.
“I thought they were coming to tell me that Donna-Marie had passed away.
“They told me unfortunately that Breda didn’t waken.
“It was like somebody had ripped part of my heart out and that part is still missing today.”
He said he has struggled to come to terms with guilt over the death of Breda.
“That is something I will carry with me to the day I die.
“Although it wasn’t my fault, I just feel that I was there to protect her and I couldn’t.
“There is a guilt and I will always carry that.”
Mr McGillion told the inquiry the first thing he did when he left hospital was to visit Breda’s grave.
He said: “I didn’t get to say goodbye, that was the hardest part.
“I didn’t get the chance to grieve because I wasn’t there.
“Watching the TV in hospital, the news report came up that it was Breda’s funeral, watching the pain on my dad’s face, on my mum’s face, my younger brothers and sisters, I just felt so guilty.”
Mr McGillion and Donna-Marie, who had also suffered horrific burns in the explosion, were married the following March.
He told the inquiry: “Although the explosion of the Omagh bomb changed my life forever, I believe it has made me a stronger person than I ever was.
“This inquiry provides some hope for all those that lost loved ones and survivors, but also the wider community to get the answers that they deserve.”
