O'Loan tells Omagh Inquiry RUC was slow to share information; Flanagan warned of peace process harm

Mixed · 2Baroness Nuala O'Loan, Northern Ireland's first police ombudsman, gave evidence to the Omagh Bombing Inquiry in Belfast on 14 October 2026 about her 2001 investigation into the RUC's handling of the Omagh bomb inquiry. 1 2 Mixed · 2The inquiry is examining whether the Real IRA car bombing of 15 August 1998 could reasonably have been prevented by UK authorities; its current phase looks at how the bomb was carried out and who was responsible. 2 1 Mixed · 2The reported death toll differs: the Evening Standard (using Press Association copy) says 29 people were killed, including a woman who was pregnant with twins, while the Irish Times says 31 died, including unborn twins. 1 2

Mixed · 2O'Loan began her probe after a 2001 Sunday People article claimed undercover agent Kevin Fulton had told his RUC handlers that a car bomb was being prepared three days before the attack; she said her team found "nothing to indicate he was unreliable". 3 2 Centre · 1She said she had understood "all relevant material" would be made available by the RUC, and agreed the information first provided was incomplete; early intelligence was redacted and access to the police intelligence database was only eventually granted. 3 Mixed · 2She described getting information as "profoundly difficult" and said they were "trying to almost draw teeth". 3 2

Mixed · 2Her team learned in September 2001 of an RUC review of the Omagh investigation by Chief Superintendent Brian McVicker; she was told the only copy was in a senior officer's safe and unlikely to be released, and she expressed "astonishment" at not being told of it. A copy was later delivered to her personally by then chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan. 3 2 Mixed · 2O'Loan said that at a private meeting at Hillsborough Castle on 10 December 2001 Flanagan told her she would "destroy the peace process" and that her office would never recover, and that he later urged her not to publish; she said she was "shocked". 1 2 Mixed · 2She also described Northern Ireland Office intervention before publication, a leak of her draft to the Sunday Times that she said did not come from her office, little NIO support ("Not particularly, no"), and outrage among some unionists; she said Ken Maginnis's Newsnight remarks on 6 December 2001 called her a "suicide bomber" who had "outlived my usefulness". 1 2

Mixed · 2Her report concluded that even with reasonable action on the Fulton intelligence the bombing was unlikely to have been prevented, and found that police received an anonymous call on 4 August 1998 with detailed information about an attack in Omagh on 15 August that was not acted upon. 1 2 Mixed · 2Asked by lead counsel Paul Greaney KC whether the bombing could have been prevented, she said that was for the inquiry to decide, but argued earlier Real IRA bombs were investigated individually rather than linked, and that linking them with phone analysis could possibly have hindered the group, making "a very cogent argument" that "there must be something that could have been done". 1 2 Centre · 1Ian Skelt KC, representing Flanagan, challenged her account, suggesting the RUC had not made a secret of the McVicker review and that the Hillsborough meeting was "much more conciliatory" than she described; she said her team was unaware the report existed. 1