An apology has been issued by the Northern Ireland Fire Service over their decision to remove a photographic tribute to the victims of the 1987 Remembrance Day bombing from a station in Enniskillen.
On Tuesday, Acting Chief Fire Officer Louis Jones issued a statement saying: "We are sorry for any hurt or anxiety caused by our actions in reaching this decision."
The commemorative print, which featured pictures of those killed in the IRA bombing in 1987, had hung in the station for 19 years until a complaint from an anonymous caller in 2007 saw it taken down.
Northern Ireland Ombudsman Tom Frawley has found that the tribute had been removed without full consultation with other members of staff and represented an "ill-considered" treatment of this "sensitive matter".
Mr Frawley said in his report that the process leading to the removal of the tribute was "attended by maladministration".
He added: "There appears to have been no consideration given to the workforce as a whole in respect of this specific complaint.
"I do not believe that an uncorroborated complaint alone from an anonymous caller was sufficient to warrant the literally immediate removal of a montage which had been on the wall for 19 years."
The statement from the Fire & Rescue Service continued: "NIFRS accepts the finding that maladministration was applied to our decision making process in removing the original Enniskillen bomb print from Enniskillen and Lisnaskea Fire Stations in September 2007.
"We are pleased that the commissioner accepts that we did not act with any improper motive during our decision making process.
"It was never our intention to cause any distress in relation to this sensitive matter, nor to diminish the devastation caused by the bomb and its impact on those directly affected and the wider community.
"The NIFRS Board will now consider the report and its findings."
DUP MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Arlene Foster, who assisted a constituent file an official complaint over the incident, called for the NIFRS to immediately restore the picture "to its rightful place in Enniskillen Fire Station".
She said: "I am insisting that they act now to correct their gross offence without any further delay or hurt to those concerned."
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