Editing Omagh bombing (section)

=== Preparation and warnings ===
[[File:Lower Market Street, Omagh County Tyrone.jpg|thumb|right|Lower Market Street, site of the bombing, 2001. The courthouse is in the background]]
On 13 August, a maroon 1991 [[Vauxhall Cavalier#Mark III (1988–1995)|Vauxhall Cavalier]] was stolen from outside a house at St Macartan’s Villas in [[Carrickmacross]], [[County Monaghan]], [[Republic of Ireland]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gardai in Carrickmacross look for information on stolen bomb car |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/gardai-in-carrickmacross-look-for-information-on-stolen-bomb-car-1.184065 |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=The Irish Times |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Panorama" /> At that time, it bore the [[County Donegal]] registration number 91-DL-2554. The bombers replaced its [[Vehicle registration plates of Ireland|Republic of Ireland number plates]] with fake [[British car number plates#Northern Ireland|Northern Ireland plates]] (MDZ 5211), and loaded the car with about {{convert|500|lb|kg}} of fertiliser-based explosives.<ref name="Panorama" />

On Saturday 15 August, the bomb car was driven from County Monaghan across the [[Irish border]] to [[Omagh]], [[County Tyrone]], travelling north and west. A 'scout car' drove ahead of the bomb car to warn it of any [[Random checkpoint|checkpoints]], and the two cars were in constant contact by mobile phone.<ref name="Black Operations">{{harvnb|Mooney|O'Toole|2004|pp=33, 155–158}}</ref> At 14:19, the bomb car was parked outside S.D. Kells' clothes shop on Omagh's Market Street, at the eastern edge of the town centre, near the crossroads with Dublin Road.<ref name="Sky">{{cite news|url=http://news.sky.com/story/577796/omagh-bombing-northern-irelands-blackest-day|title=Omagh Bombing: Northern Ireland's Blackest Day|work=Sky News|date=27 February 2008|access-date=11 April 2014}}</ref> The driver could not find a parking space near the intended target, [[Omagh Courthouse]].<ref name="Black Operations" /> The two male bombers armed the bomb and set the [[Time bomb|timer]] to detonate it in forty minutes.<ref name="Black Operations"/> They left the car and walked east down Market Street towards Campsie Road, before leaving Omagh in the scout car.<ref name="Black Operations"/> A family of Spanish tourists happened to take photos next to the car; the man and child in the photograph survived but the photographer did not.<ref name="Edge of Darkness">{{cite news |last=Thorton |first=Chris |date=15 August 2008 |title=Omagh: The Edge of Darkness |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/omagh-the-edge-of-darkness-28443663.html |work=Belfast Telegraph |access-date=27 June 2018}}</ref>

At around 14:30, three phone calls were made warning of a bomb in Omagh, using the same codeword that had been used in the Real IRA's bombing in Banbridge two weeks earlier: "Martha Pope".<ref name="Black Operations" /><ref name="Hoey">[http://www.bailii.org/nie/cases/NICC/2007/49.html The Queen -v- Sean Hoey &#91;2007&#93; NICC 49]. Crown Court for Northern Ireland.</ref><ref name="BBC warnings" /> The calls were made from [[telephone box]]es many miles away in southern [[County Armagh]].<ref name="Hoey" /> The first warning was telephoned to [[Ulster Television]] saying, "There's a bomb, courthouse, Omagh, main street, 500lb, explosion thirty minutes."<ref name="BBC warnings" /> One minute later, the office received a second warning saying, "Bomb, Omagh town, fifteen minutes." The caller claimed the warning on behalf of "[[Óglaigh na hÉireann]]".<ref name="BBC warnings" /> The next minute, the [[Coleraine]] office of the [[Samaritans (charity)|Samaritans]] received a call stating that a bomb would go off on the "main street" of Omagh "about 200 yards" (180 m) from the courthouse.<ref name="BBC warnings">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/northern_ireland/latest_news/153818.stm|title=Omagh bomb warnings released|work=BBC News|date=18 August 1998|access-date=11 April 2014}}</ref> The recipients passed on the information to the [[Royal Ulster Constabulary]] (RUC).<ref name="BBC warnings" />

[[BBC News]] stated that police "were clearing an area near the local courthouse, forty minutes after receiving a telephone warning, when the bomb detonated. But the warning was unclear and the wrong area was evacuated."<ref name="BBC" /> The warnings mentioned "main street" when there was no street by that name in Omagh, although Market Street–High Street was the town's main shopping street.<ref name="Panorama" /> It runs for hundreds of yards east–west from the site of the bomb to the courthouse.<ref name="Hoey" /> Given the warnings, police believed the bomb was near the courthouse, so they evacuated the surrounding buildings and streets. As it happened, they moved people away from the courthouse and towards the site of the bomb, placing a cordon at Scarffe's Entry.<ref name="CNN" /><ref name="Panorama" /><ref name="BBC warnings" /><ref name="BBC" /><ref name="CAIN">[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/events/omagh/events.htm "Main Events surrounding the bomb in Omagh"].[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]]. Retrieved 18 February 2009.</ref> The courthouse is roughly {{convert|365|yd|m}} from the spot where the car bomb was parked.<ref name="Hoey" /> During the later [[Special Criminal Court]] trial of Real IRA director [[Michael McKevitt]], witnesses for the prosecution said that the inaccurate warnings were accidental.<ref name="Black Operations" /> McKevitt was a former "quartermaster general" in the [[Provisional IRA]].<ref>Andrew Sanders, ''Inside the IRA: Dissident Republicans and the War for Legitimacy'', p.209</ref>