‘Real IRA’ Admits Planting Bomb, Apologizes for Deaths

The “Real IRA,” a splinter group opposed to Northern Ireland’s peace accord, admitted Tuesday that it carried out Saturday’s bombing that killed 28 people and injured more than 200. It apologized for the deaths, saying its warnings were not properly followed.

“Despite media reports, it was not our intention at any time to kill any civilians,” the group said in a statement telephoned to a newspaper in Dublin, the capital of Ireland. “It was a commercial target, part of an ongoing war against the Brits.

“We offer apologies to these civilians,” the statement added.

Britain’s top official in the province, who was accompanying Prince Charles on a tour of this shattered town, denounced the apology as a “pathetic attempt to . . . excuse mass murder.”

“It is contemptible, and it is an insult to the people of Omagh,” said Northern Ireland Secretary Marjorie “Mo” Mowlam.

On Monday, police arrested five suspected members of the Real IRA, which rejects the peace accord approved by the Irish Republican Army and its political ally, Sinn Fein.

But today, Britain’s Press Assn. news agency reported that the Real IRA had declared a cease-fire.

The Real IRA said it warned Ulster Television twice and a branch of the Samaritans, a charity, that the bomb was 300 to 400 yards from Omagh’s courthouse. However, both police and the TV station said the warnings stated that the bomb was at the courthouse. Police cordoned off the building, unwittingly driving people closer to the blast amid the crowded shops of Market Street.

At dusk, 5,000 people gathered in Omagh in a vigil for the victims.

Earlier, in nearby Augher, 30-year-old Avril Monaghan, heavily pregnant with twins, and her 18-month-old daughter, Maura, were laid to rest in a hilltop rural cemetery. At least 12 more victims, including Avril Monaghan’s mother, will be buried today.