From a father recalled as a gentle giant to university students, tourists, and a very young flower girl to be, the 29 people killed in the Omagh bomb in 1998 are to be remembered during a public inquiry into the atrocity.
On the first day of the commemorative hearings, the counsel to the inquiry Paul McGreaney KC gave a flavour of some of the evidence to be heard over the next four weeks about 29 victims.
On that day they visited the Ulster-American Folk Park on the outskirts of Omagh before going into the town itself in the afternoon to shop when the bomb exploded at 3.04pm.
However one of the worst atrocities in Northern Ireland’s history shattered that for many on August 15, 1998.
The impact on those survived will also be considered, with one person, who was 13 at the time of the blast describing it as “the final loss of innocence for me”.
