As the young, newly appointed editor of the Impartial Reporter in Enniskillen, Denzil McDaniel was always hungry for a story. But the telephone call which caused him to rush to the town centre nearly 10 years ago is one he still wishes he had never received.
It was 10.45 a.m. on a chilly November day. "My sister-in-law rang to say there was smoke coming from the Cenotaph. I lived only a few minutes away so I rushed down. I couldn't believe what I saw," McDaniel said.
A scene of carnage greeted him. A bomb had exploded at the annual Remembrance Day ceremony. Dozens of men, women and children were trapped under rubble. Ten people were already dead, another would die later.
"It was difficult for me to suddenly switch to being a reporter," said McDaniel. "I knew these people. I was born in Enniskillen. I had spent most of my life there. I wasn't just a journalist covering a story. This was my home town."
But McDaniel got on with his job. His local background and knowledge gave his reports a sharpness and sensitivity that those of outside journalists lacked. His book on the bombing has just been published to mark the 10th anniversary next month.
"It's something I had to do," he said. "I had to write this book to get things out of my system. I found the whole event emotionally draining." Enniskillen - The Remembrance Sunday Bombing is primarily a story of human suffering. McDaniel has talked to the victims' families and to many of those badly injured. "I greatly admire their courage and dignity," he said.
He contrasts this restraint with the behaviour of "politicians and outsiders" who demanded that nationalists be locked up and the Border sealed.
He attempts to place the bomb in a political context. His request for an interview with the then British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, was refused but he spoke to her former press secretary, Sir Bernard Ingham.
He also interviewed Northern Ireland politicians about the explosion, including Gerry Adams who said it was "wrong" but refused to condemn it.
No one has ever been charged with the bombing, but from speaking to a variety of sources McDaniel has pieced together an account of the movements of the IRA members involved.
He said the bombers were shown around Enniskillen by two local IRA men and that the device was made in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, by the South Fermanagh Brigade. The West Fermanagh Brigade helped them bring it across the Border.
It took more than 24 hours to transport the device. The bombers moved cautiously in relay teams to evade security patrols. Up to 30 people were involved in the IRA operation, he said.
The bomb was planted in a building beside the War Memorial known as the Reading Rooms which is owned by the Catholic Church. Ironically, it wasn't searched before the Remembrance Service because police were anxious not to appear insensitive to the church.
The bomb was left in the building on the eve of the ceremony. That night two men playing cards with the caretaker downstairs thought they heard footsteps from the floor above. They saw nothing and went back to their game.
McDaniel believes it was the bombers. "No one has ever admitted to being in the building. Anyone innocent would have immediately come forward," he said.
A Protestant who grew up in a mainly Catholic estate in Enniskillen, McDaniel has bent over backwards to listen to all sides for his book. The IRA has said that its intended target was the security forces, not civilians.
Most of the injured and bereaved reject this claim, but McDaniel believes that the IRA did not specifically target civilians: "I think the IRA made mistakes, whether with the timer or their intelligence, I don't know."
However, he said the Provisionals were reckless about the risk to civilian life. He argues that "Enniskillen" was a huge embarrassment to the IRA and contributed to "some soul-searching" among republicans.
Yet the extent of that soulsearching remains unclear. One republican is quoted as describing the bombing as a "bad mistake" but adds: "There is no point talking about it now. In an organisation such as this, there is the potential for f. . .-ups."
McDaniel tries to equate the Enniskillen dead with the victims of Bloody Sunday whose relatives are campaigning for an apology from the British government.
But a republican he interviewed rejects the comparison: "Bloody Sunday was a deliberate act of murder carried out by the British under instruction from their government. Enniskillen was a mistake by amateur soldiers."