Omagh bombing inquiry hears of bomb warning to Finner Camp

The Omagh bombing inquiry has heard testimony regarding a telephone warning made to the Irish Defence Forces at Finner Camp in Donegal the day before the 1998 Real IRA attack.

Journalist John Ware informed the inquiry, led by Andrew Turnbull, that a confidential source indicated a caller urged authorities to “check the back roads” for an explosives-laden vehicle crossing the border. The caller reportedly repeated the name of the target town three times, saying, “Omagh, Omagh, Omagh.”

The warning was reportedly made on August 14, 1998, just hours before the car bomb exploded in County Tyrone on August 15, killing 29 people and injuring 220 others. This remains the deadliest single attack in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

While a 2009 inquiry by intelligence services commissioner Peter Gibson found “no evidence whatever” that warnings were received from the Gardaí, Ware suggested this new information contradicts those previous findings. It remains unclear if the warning was ever relayed to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.