PICTURES OF JOY BEFORE HORROR
Pictures of joy before horror
Last snaps of daytrip children
By Enda McClafferty
THEY are snapshots of the happiness that came before the horror.
Smiling and excited, a group of Spanish youngsters pose for a group photograph at the American Folk Park (main picture).
The camera clicks. They've been staying with friends in Buncrana officially studying the English language, but like children everywhere concentrating on having fun and a good time.
And this is their big day out. They've come to the Folk Park to learn something about Ulster's history. It's a bright, sunny day. As bright and sunny and open as their smiles. And now another group of children are posing for the camera too. It's a bunch of schoolgirls from Buncrana. Giggling and happy they're just as excited as their Spanish friends. This photograph will be a keepsake of the day. Something mind them when they're older of that warm summer's day when they were young and innocent and hadn't a care in the world.
They've left the Folk Park now and they're on the bus. The bus to Omagh.
The camera clicks again. And every time it does on this bright, sunny day, it brings them closer and closer to the darkness that will engulf all their lives. For this is the day when these young Spanish children and their friends won't just learn about Ulster's bloody history. They will become part of it. They believe they are on their way to a fun-filled carnival in Omagh town centre.
Instead, they are only hours from the atrocity that will blight their young lives forever. Only minutes after they arrived in Omagh town centre, these children were caught up in the blast as a 500lb car bomb ripped through Market Street.
Two members of the Spanish party, one of them a 12-year-old schoolboy, another a teacher, were killed.
Their bodies were flown home for the funerals which were held today. Seventeen were seriously injured, among them the sister of the dead boy.
Three little boys from the Buncrana group, three young pals who went everywhere together, died together.
And if any photographs can convey the true horror of that day it is these snapshots, capturing as they do the joy, the promise, the sheer zest for life that all those children shared. The snapshots which should have become treasured momentoes have become instead cruel reminders of the darkest day in the history of our Troubles.
Some day when they are older the survivors of the Omagh atrocity may gaze at the pictures and remember a day which began so happily. They will remember their friends, young lives cruelly cut short and innocence lost forever.
And they may remember that moment when they posed smiling and carefree oblivious to the fact that as the camera was clicking, in Omagh town the clock was ticking.
Last snaps of daytrip children
By Enda McClafferty
THEY are snapshots of the happiness that came before the horror.
Smiling and excited, a group of Spanish youngsters pose for a group photograph at the American Folk Park (main picture).
The camera clicks. They've been staying with friends in Buncrana officially studying the English language, but like children everywhere concentrating on having fun and a good time.
And this is their big day out. They've come to the Folk Park to learn something about Ulster's history. It's a bright, sunny day. As bright and sunny and open as their smiles. And now another group of children are posing for the camera too. It's a bunch of schoolgirls from Buncrana. Giggling and happy they're just as excited as their Spanish friends. This photograph will be a keepsake of the day. Something mind them when they're older of that warm summer's day when they were young and innocent and hadn't a care in the world.
They've left the Folk Park now and they're on the bus. The bus to Omagh.
The camera clicks again. And every time it does on this bright, sunny day, it brings them closer and closer to the darkness that will engulf all their lives. For this is the day when these young Spanish children and their friends won't just learn about Ulster's bloody history. They will become part of it. They believe they are on their way to a fun-filled carnival in Omagh town centre.
Instead, they are only hours from the atrocity that will blight their young lives forever. Only minutes after they arrived in Omagh town centre, these children were caught up in the blast as a 500lb car bomb ripped through Market Street.
Two members of the Spanish party, one of them a 12-year-old schoolboy, another a teacher, were killed.
Their bodies were flown home for the funerals which were held today. Seventeen were seriously injured, among them the sister of the dead boy.
Three little boys from the Buncrana group, three young pals who went everywhere together, died together.
And if any photographs can convey the true horror of that day it is these snapshots, capturing as they do the joy, the promise, the sheer zest for life that all those children shared. The snapshots which should have become treasured momentoes have become instead cruel reminders of the darkest day in the history of our Troubles.
Some day when they are older the survivors of the Omagh atrocity may gaze at the pictures and remember a day which began so happily. They will remember their friends, young lives cruelly cut short and innocence lost forever.
And they may remember that moment when they posed smiling and carefree oblivious to the fact that as the camera was clicking, in Omagh town the clock was ticking.
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/0048
Published Date: 18-Aug-98
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