Omagh

Young people don't always actually get to learn about those businesses.

They won't know if they're based in Omagh about all the small businesses that could be employing them.

So I think that's one of our challenges because, again, if they're consuming it mostly digitally, those companies don't have HR departments in order to represent the, their own organizations out there.

So I think that's where it's important that throughout their education, we're also making them aware of the wider range of opportunities that are available to them, be it self-employment, startup.

A bit of a-

... a bit of a hustle against Tirban in Omagh.

Unfortunately, we lost that.

Then I captained the minor team during Martin McShane Cup.

So we, we were training the youngsters, um, during the winter, probably light years ahead of everybody else.

Um, but we were charging the kids a pound to pay for the school, and when we had the opportunity for a hall, we jumped at the chance.

Um, there was a girl, Polly Donaldson, came out from Omagh to look at the old club, and wh- she, she asked what we done in the old club, and at that time we were having, um, funeral masses ...

Or not funeral masses, funeral, um, receptions.

Mickey McKevitt was involved in the Real IRA, which broke from Provisional Sinn Féin, the Provisional IRA, around 1997, as, as I remember that.

Now, just obviously for international listeners, the Real IRA were responsible for the Omagh bomb in August 1998.

29 people were killed, 200 injured.

No one has ever been convicted.

So Rupert slowly makes his way, and for a long time he's wondering if he's having a- any effect.

And remember, y- th- there's a whole lot of mission creep here with Rupert, where he starts out, he's just supposed to be listening and feeding information back to the FBI and MI5.

It starts out with the FBI, then the MI5 is brought in, and it's really after Omagh that Britain becomes interested in, like, hey, w- we need to do something here, and they find out the Americans have this source that's been very useful, and that's when MI5 gets more involved in becoming Rupert's direct handler.

But the Continuity IRA is not as active as the Real IRA.

Today, we're joined by Alan Witherow, our product and applications manager here at Finley.

Today, we're currently recording in our boardroom here in Omagh.

Um, the last podcast, we were interrupted by a fire alarm at 12 o'clock on a Wednesday.

Today, we may be interrupted by some cutting or drilling noises, uh, due to the factory shutdown, a good time for our maintenance teams to get things done.

Big change at that stage, yeah.

Yeah.

Bit of a less commute then from Donegal to Omagh versus-

Aye

The guards can't lock them up.

Matt Ward was only over in Omagh town the other week.

It's not fit for purpose.

They're not being corrected.

...

Omagh, and Virginia.

How did you get into this, the showing?

Well, it was, me both grandas were gardeners.

But I found it, and I saw that it was, um, over the top of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and into Russia.

And the next day, I went to the library in Omagh and took out a book on Lapland, and it said Norwegian Lapland.

But I well remember the day I went to speak to the principal in Omagh Tech, where I was teaching at the time, and I said to him, "I'm leaving at the end of June." "Oh," he says, "and what are you going to do?" "Well, uh, I've got a call from God to go to Lapland."

[laughs]

He looked at me.