A sad day for all

A MOMENT of silence in Market Street in Omagh marked the time that a dissident republican car bomb devastated the town 25 years ago.

- JONATHAN MCCAMBRIDGE

Some bereaved family members laid single white roses and then said prayers at the glass obelisk which marks the spot where the Real IRA attack occurred on August 15, 1998.

A crowd of more than 100 people lined the streets in the Co Tyrone town as the short ceremony took place.

Twenty-nine people, including a woman pregnant with twins, were killed by the bomb, the worst loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles.

It came just months after the historic Good Friday Agreement.

No-one has ever been criminally convicted of the attack.

Stanley McCombe, who lost his wife Ann in the bombing, said of the anniversary: "It is a sad day for all those who have suffered in this atrocity.

"I think about this every day, not just today, not just the anniversary, there's always something that will bring it to your attention.

"You walk through the door of my house, close the door behind you, my dog greets me, but that's it."

Kevin Skelton, who lost his wife Philomena in the bombing, said yesterday's gathering shows "people have not forgotten".