A 12-year-old boy from Donegal murdered in the Omagh Bomb had his life taken in the “most evil and barbaric fashion”.
Victor Barker was giving evidence to the public inquiry today about his son James, one of three schoolboys from Buncrana who were murdered in the explosion.
Mr Barker told how his family had moved to Donegal to be close to James’s maternal grandparents.
James Barker
James had taken the place of his sister on a trip to Omagh with Spanish exchange students on the day of the explosion because she had not been feeling well.
Mr Barker said his daughter bore the guilt of that decision to this day.
He said his son’s life had been “full of promise”. He had been an “outgoing, caring and fun-loving” boy.
He revealed that the day before the bombing, they had spent precious hours golfing and fishing together.
He said late on the Saturday evening of the bombing, 15 August 1998, he and his wife had travelled to Omagh in search of their son.
They were directed to the town’s leisure centre where he was asked for any identifying marks that James might have had. He told them that his son had a large mole at the back of his right leg, was of very slim build and had blond hair.
Later, he was taken to a temporary morgue at an army barracks.
“It was at this moment that I knew James was not in the hospital,” he told the inquiry.
“We were asked to identify James; those moments probably play on my mind more than anything.
“I cannot begin to describe what those hours were like. I experienced feelings and emotions which I cannot put into words.”
Mr Barker was also asked to identify Fernando Blasco Baselga, one of the Spanish students.
His sister had been staying with the Barker family.
The morning after the bombing, he said he saw a copy of the Mail on Sunday, which had a front-page picture of his son on a stretcher.
“I recall saying to my friends, look what they’ve done to my lovely boy. This was the start of all the publicity surrounding our grief, and there was no privacy afforded.”
Mr Barker said the following week had been a haze. He described the huge crowds which attended the wake and the very public nature of what he described as being akin to a “State funeral”.
His son had been buried in Buncrana but was later exhumed and reinterred in England.
Mr Barker said he had campaigned to bring “some kind of justice for James and everyone else”.
“We have been woefully let down by a very poorly conducted police investigation, and I might add the Chief Constable in Sir Ronnie Flanagan, who in my view fell well short of the mark, and the civil case has taken a great deal out of so many families.
“James had his life taken away from him in the most evil and barbaric fashion and was robbed of his bright and happy future.
“I sometimes doubt whether he had the same human rights as the terrorists. But we should remember that pain has no nationality and no borders, but neither does the love of the human heart.”
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