My heart goes out to all the families who relatives were killed or injured in the Omagh bomb. They must be devastated by the latest bombshell to hit them, the acquittal of Sean Hoey. They have had to wait so long for the verdict in the lengthy trial and now when it has eventually come, right at Christmas, they know in their hearts that no-one will ever be caught and punished for planning, manufacturing, transporting and planting the deadly bomb in a busy thoroughfare in Omagh's Lower Market Street. Indeed, like the team which orchestrated the Enniskillen bomb twenty years ago, it would seem that the Omagh bombers are also going to get away scot free.

I am quite friendly with a number of the families, particularly one lady who lost two members of her family and has never wished to be interviewed by the media. I can honestly say that all the families have been through a living hell for the past nine and a half years. They have been let down at every turn by the two governments, the Public Prosecution Service, Forensic Science Agency, Special Branch, the Garda Síochána and the PSNI. Justice has been denied to them despite the definite assurances of two Prime Ministers that no stone would be left unturned in seeking out the perpetrators and having them put behind bars for a very long time. In my opinion, try as they may, the families many never be granted the independent cross-border inquiry they seek as this might expose too many skeletons in a well stocked cupboard, one for example, how this bomb was permitted to get through unhindered all the way from Castleblaney to Omagh. The only route left to the families now would seem to be the civil action they hope to take against certain named individuals whom they believe helped mastermind this despicable outrage.

It simply beggars belief that not a single dissident republican activist except Sean Hoey in a Northern Ireland court and Colm Murphy in a Southern court has ever been tried on conspiracy charges connected with the bomb.

One suspect, I understand, was only charged with membership of the Real IRA, and was given a short sentence in a Dublin Court. The final insult for the grieving families is the refusal of the local authorities to accept the inscription, chosen by them, for the new sculpture to mark the site of the car bomb. The families haven't yet been told what will happen to the stone in the Memorial Garden which also bears this inscription.

Is there to be no end to the traumas these families have got to endure and the disappointments they have experienced over the past decade? When no one has been convicted of implementing the single worst atrocity of the Troubles and when there is little hope of a public inquiry ever being granted, one question remains, "Will there ever be closure for those unfortunate families this side of the grave?"

Wilfred Breen

Omagh