The winning design for the Omagh Bomb Memorial, by a Dublin design team, will be unveiled in the Co Tyrone town tomorrow.
In April, the Omagh Memorial Working Group launched the public art design competition to provide a permanent memorial to the victims of the bombing, both at the bomb site and in the nearby memorial garden.
The design, by artist Seán Hillen and landscape architect Desmond FitzGerald, was one of five shortlisted finalists, with other entries coming from Spain, Belfast and Norfolk.
"Constant Light" is the theme of the winning design. The site of the explosion at Market Street will be marked by a solid glass pillar, about 4.5m (14.7ft) high, with a three-dimensional glass heart which appears to be suspended inside.
Around the corner, a reflective pool is at the centre of the memorial garden. Large mirrors will track the sun so that constant sunbeams are shining onto 31 pole-mounted small mirrors. The 31 poles represent the 31 people who died in the explosion on August 15th, 1998, including two unborn children. Some 412 people were injured, of whom 165 received serious injuries.
The 31 mirrors will bounce the light over buildings and down onto the heart inside the pillar on Market Street. Silver birch trees are chosen for planting because they are always the first species to grow in disturbed land.
The designers describe their "garden of light" as a "a simple meditative space, not fenced off from the street, but retaining a sense of quiet enclosure".
Landscape artist Desmond FitzGerald said the Dublin team was delighted to win the competition as it had attracted entries from all over the world.
"It's exciting, really exciting. It's not often you get a chance to be part of something like this," he said.
The finished memorial will be in place for the 10th anniversary of the bombing next August.
