THE wife of a man who was injured in the Enniskillen bombing 30 years ago has said she is “ashamed and disgusted” by the decision to reject a proposal to install at memorial outside the Clinton Centre in memory of the 12 people who died.
Sharon Gault, whose husband Stephen lost his father in the 1987 IRA bombing, said she “cannot understand” why St. Michael’s Diocesan Trust does not accept The Ely Centre’s plan.
Last year the victims group proposed to locate its memorial on private property on Belmore Street held by the Trust “without any consultation” with the owners or its tenant, Fermanagh University Partnership Board (FUPB).
This newspaper first revealed last week how the Trust had found “insurmountable problems” with the location of the memorial which has been in storage at the TA Centre in Enniskillen since November.
Reacting to the development, Mrs. Gault told this newspaper: “I am ashamed and disgusted by the St. Michael’s Trust’s decision not to permit the fitting memorial to remember the 12 innocent civilians murdered by the IRA and those who were injured.
“I simply cannot understand why a simple memorial to remember one of the worlds worst terrorist atrocities can’t be erected on the spot of the explosion,” she said.
Mrs. Gault said she was “baffled” by the response from the Trust last week and claimed that “at no point” did it “open any dialogue with the families.”
“If the Trust has really wanted to make this happen they would have agreed to meet the Ely Centre or family members to come together to resolve this matter,” she said. 
Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster, who met with families of some of the bomb victims this week, said: “A publicly funded memorial should not be left behind closed doors in storage.”
“I hope a meeting between the Roman Catholic Church, the families affected by the Enniskillen Poppy Day bomb and Fermanagh University Partnership Board can take place so that face to face dialogue can occur. My focus is on a solution rather than recrimination,” she said.
Ulster Unionist MLA for the area Rosemary Barton said the issue “has dragged on for some time.”
“If necessary I am willing, as a public representative to meet with the Trust and discuss the matter further,” she said. 
Kenny Donaldson, Director of Services for South East Fermanagh Foundation , described the decision as “a failure of leadership and consigns bereaved families once again as the collateral damage of other’s incompetence, immorality or intransigence.”
Last week a spokesman for the Trust said it had given careful consideration to key questions such as public access, its obligations to its tenant, the ongoing upkeep, security and sustainability of the memorial and potential future public works in the area. 
“It should be clear from the foregoing that the Trust is not in a position to sanction the siting of this memorial as proposed. We are happy that the re-developed Clinton Centre will include a memorial to the victims of the Enniskillen bombing and the Trust hopes that a suitable location for the Ely Centre memorial will be found.
“Let us be very clear,” he added, “The Trust has no objection to a permanent memorial being erected to the victims of the Enniskillen bombing.”