The Government Chief Whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, and the President's ADC, Comdt Dermot O'Connor, were among the attendance at a Mass in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral yesterday to commemorate the first anniversary of the Omagh bomb.
In his homily the celebrant, Father Pat O'Donoghue, said the tragedy would be fruitless "if we ignore the quiet dignity and the beautiful openness of so many who survived that awful day. At a time when bodily perfection is treasured and even deified who could deny the beauty in the expression of that young girl, scarred by crazed hatred, who defeated death and this year married the love of her life?"
He continued: "The resolve of the people of Omagh to rise above the depravity inflicted on them is in sharp contrast to the images we witnessed yesterday [Saturday] in Belfast and Derry. The dignified atmosphere of Omagh today [Sunday] reminds me of that wonderful poem by Mairtin O Direain, Dignit an Bhroin - the dignity of sorrow."
Our world stopped last August in shock, he said. "The focus of the world was on our little island. An island from which bearers of the message of Christ have travelled since the fifth century. An island where, for over 30 years, hearts have been broken and blood has been spattered."
For the people of Omagh life had changed for ever, but for the rest of us "we stopped a while, maybe contributed some money for the fund and then moved on". Peace was "the responsibility of all people," he said, "peace begins in my heart, in my openness. It begins with me."
