Today marks 25 years since the IRA detonated a bomb in the Co Tyrone town of Omagh. 29 people and two unborn children were killed while a further 220 were injured.
The bombing remains - to this day - the largest loss of life in a single incident during the Troubles. Northern Ireland Secretary, Chris Heaton-Harris says the atrocity reverberated around the world.
Mr Heaton Harris described the bombing - which occurred on the 15th of August 1998 - as an "horrific terrorist atrocity" committed by the Real IRA. He pointed out that the British Government has the deepest sympathy for all of those affected.
Meanwhile, it took place just months after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, a time when the people of Northern Ireland were looking to a future without the violence that had dominated the previous three decades.
The Northern Ireland Secretary said the atrocity had absolutely no justification, and never will. Mr Heaton Harris then pointed to the establishment of an independent statutory inquiry into the preventability of the bombing which he announced last February.
He said that while responsibility for the crime lies with the murderers and those who assisted them, it is important that lessons are learned and that confidence in this is provided to the families of those affected, and to wider society.
Mr Heaton Harris added that he visited the site of the bombing last year and met with relatives of those who died, and he found it to be a very sobering experience. The Memorial Garden of Light close to the site was subsequently developed to commemorate all those who lost their lives 25 years ago today.
