Man says ‘everything that happened’ in his life was a result of Omagh bomb

A survivor of the Omagh bombing has said that everything that has happened in his life since 1998 has been a result of the tragedy.

Rodney Patterson told the Omagh Bombing Inquiry that he was standing around 40 feet away from the device when it exploded, devastating the centre of the Co Tyrone town.

Mr Patterson, who said it was the first time he was speaking publicly about his experiences, told the inquiry that he had gone into Omagh on the day of the tragedy to buy an exercise bike and get his hair cut.

He had just sat down in the hairdresser’s shop when a police officer evacuated the shop over a bomb alert and he was moved in the direction of Market Street.

He told the inquiry that he had been speaking to a friend when the bomb exploded.

He said: “There was this merciful bang. Everything felt warm, the air started to feel warm and I thought my eyes were swelling up, I put my hands against my eyes and I could feel them pushing against the palms of my hands, I thought my eyes were coming out.

“I couldn’t breathe. It seemed to suck all the oxygen out of my body. Everything went jet black, the ground seemed to move.”

He added: “I thought my eyes were going to come out of my head.

“I opened my eyes and it was like a different world, it was jet black, it was like night-time. There was debris everywhere.

“There were people lying at different angles.”

Mr Patterson said he did not know if he was injured, but that there was glass all over his hands.

He said: “There was blood coming on to my clothes. I felt something jagging me.

“I put my hand up and it was a big piece of glass in my forehead so I just pulled it out.

“I was so shocked, I didn’t know what was happening.”

He said he noticed a woman lying beside him in the street but did not know if she was alive or dead.

He said he and his friend left the area and were taken to hospital.

He said: “It was indescribable. We went in through casualty and it was like blood on the walls, people everywhere, it was horrific.”

Mr Patterson told the inquiry that he knew many people who had been killed in the tragedy.

He said: My family were phoning up and telling me such and such was killed, and I knew nearly every one of them that was killed. I knew a lot of them.”

He said he has struggled to come to terms with what he experienced in the years since.

He told the inquiry: “The years ahead were so hard, I always felt tired, I never talked to anybody ever about it, nobody knew.

“It changed my life forever. In the years after I found it difficult to mix with people, I couldn’t sit in a restaurant unless it was near a door where I could get away quickly.

“I don’t like to be among people, crowds of people.”

He told the inquiry that he had wanted to train as a psychiatric nurse, but after the bombing became an auxiliary nurse instead.

He said because of the impact of the bomb, he retired from work at 55.

He said: “Everything that has happened in my life has been a result of that bomb that day.”