Dublin firm Desmond Fitzgerald and White Young Green to build obelisk and 'Garden of Light'

A four and half metre obelisk and memorial garden are to be built on the site of the 1998 Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland.

The Dublin-based design team of architect Desmond Fitzgerald and artist Sean Hillen, with consultant White Young Green, are to create what is being dubbed the ‘Garden of Light’ for client Omagh District Council.

A budget of £250,000 has been allocated for the memorial, which should be completed before the 10th anniversary of the bombing next August.

Fitzgerald and Hillen explained that their approach is to create a garden of light formed by lines of small mirrors positioned on poles around a reflecting pool. These will be backed up by a grassy bank planted with silver birch trees and wild flowers.

A mirror in the garden, known as a heliostat, tracks the sun and pours a beam of sunlight onto the 31 mirrors which will be arranged to carry light down the road onto a heart-shaped sculpture at the bomb site which is almost constantly in the shade.