The father of a man killed in the Omagh Bombing “sincerely” hopes that the public inquiry brings the answers the families are “entitled to”.

The long-awaited public inquiry into the Omagh Bombing is getting underway today.

The inquiry is being held in Omagh Town Centre, close to where the real IRA car bomb ripped through the street.

It was the single worst atrocity of the Troubles - killing 29 people including a woman who was pregnant with twins.

Hundreds of others were also injured during the attack in August 1998.

The attack occurred less than three months after people took to the polls to vote in favour of the Good Friday peace deal.

The inquiry will examine if the Omagh Bombing could have been prevented by UK state authorities.

The inquiry is being chaired by Lord Alan Turnbull, a respected jurist who was one of the lead prosecutors in the Pan Am Flight 103 Bombing trial.

On The Pat Kenny Show, father of 21-year-old Aiden Gallagher, who was killed in the bombing, said the waiting has been “a long hard struggle”.

“We have met with Prime Ministers, with Taoiseachs, with Presidents and we've urged them to hold a public inquiry,” he said.

“I still wake up in the morning and think, ‘How did we manage to get the public inquiry in the end?’”

Over the years, there have been many “excuses” for not giving the families a public inquiry, according to Mr Gallagher.

“One of the [explanations] that was used quite a lot was [that] there are people before the courts facing serious charges and we have to allow that process to take place,” he said.

“The other one is that there were various inquiries, such as the police Ombudsman's Office and the Northern Ireland Committee Holds Inquiries.

“Various inquiries were being held and they've used those as a barrier - and I think at the end, they just ran out of road.”

Royal Ulster Constabulary Police officers stand on Market Street, the scene of a car bombing in the centre of Omagh, Co Tyrone. (AP Photo / Paul McErlane)

Mr Gallagher said he feels “denied” of certain things after losing Aiden.

“His younger sister Cathy - she now has two beautiful children, and you know, Aidan's friends have got married and have children and that's one of the things that we as parents have been denied,” he said.

“If you had said to me before the bomb that this is going to happen, I would have said I couldn't survive after.”

Aiden and his mother were “extremely close” before his passing, Mr Gallagher said.

“He loved to go out at the weekend with his friends and he would come in near the hours of the morning… into our bedroom and he would sit on the side of the bed beside my wife and talk through what happened that evening,” he said.

“How she survived, how she managed, I will never, ever understand.

“Her father, who shared the same birthday with Aiden, died 11 days after Aiden.

“I've no doubt [the bombing] contributed to that because when we were in the chapel and Aiden was being carried out, I could see her father was thinking, ‘That should be me in that box, not Aiden’.”

Members of the Omagh Support and Self Help Group outside the Special Criminal Court, Dublin during the Colm Murphy Case. 16/11/2001. Photo: RollingNews.ie

Mr Gallagher said for him, he feels like the public inquiry is “the beginning of the end” for him.

“Well, I think that I have dedicated the past 26 years to get into the truth and to get this public inquiry,” he said.

“I went from house to house, from office to office, carrying the paperwork in the books and I think for me, this is the beginning of the end.

“I haven't got the energy to carry on after this.

“I think that this is the beginning of the end and I do sincerely hope that we get those important answers that we're entitled to.”

Mr Gallagher said he hopes that the inquiry findings can help with other incidents and that the Government will be in a better position to mitigate the circumstances.

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Omagh bomb campaigner Michael Gallagher on Campsie Street, Omagh. 02/02/2023 Image: Alamy