Judge recommends fresh probe into Omagh bombing

A judge has recommended the UK Government carries out an investigation into the Omagh bombing, and urged the Irish Government to do likewise, after finding “plausible arguments” that there was a “real prospect” of preventing the atrocity. Delivering judgment in a legal challenge against the UK Government’s refusal to hold a public inquiry, Mr Justice Horner said a human rights compliant probe is needed to examine whether a more “proactive” security approach against dissident republican terrorists in the lead-up to the Real IRA bombing may have thwarted it. The outrage in August 1998 killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins. It was the worst single atrocity of the Northern Ireland conflict.