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BACK TO THE HELL OF OMAGH
By GERRY MILLAR and TED OLIVER

Families gathered at the leisure centre where just two years ago they waited in tears to hear if loved ones were dead or alive
ONE by one they walked into the Omagh Leisure Centre, their faces etched in anxiety and heartbreak.
The hall was once the town's centre of fun but the laughter vanished two years ago - the day a Real IRA blast wrecked the main street and left their loved ones dead.
They had gathered there in the terrible aftermath, waiting to find out if their mums, dads, sisters, brothers, children were dead or alive.
Many grieving families hadn't been back to the hall since the atrocity ripped their lives apart.
But they will never forget the emptiness, the hopelessness of those long and lonely moments.
Yesterday they gathered there once more, united in suffering.
Two years and 22 days ago, on Saturday, August 15, their lives collapsed as the bomb detonated.
Twenty-nine people were killed - 31 including the twin girls who died in Avril Monaghan's womb
Behind the back wall of the court where they used to play basketball, the women of Omagh were starting an aerobics class yesterday.
And a group of schoolchildren were arriving for swimming lessons in the municipal pool.
Complex boss Philip Faithful said he wanted to maintain "some sort of normality while the inquest was going on".
After the explosion, he was among the staff called in to help the wounded and their families. His life would never be the same.
Survivor Donna Marie McGillion, 24, and husband Gary were the first to enter the courtroom, Donna's burns still tightly covered with a plastic mask.
Grieving
Other relatives filed in silently, including the families of the Spanish boy Fernando Baselga and youth leader Rocia Ramos.
Over the next four weeks, they will hear in graphic detail how their loved ones died.
Holding the inquest in Omagh was a hard decision for coroner John Leckey, 52, the gentlest of men who for the past 10 years has listened as the details of other terror atrocities have been aired.
But he decided that what may be the only inquiry into the worst single atrocity of the Troubles should be held here, near the grieving families.
Mr Leckey said the full list of casualties may never be known - it is "far in excess of the number killed and injured".
He added: "I am conscious of the fact that for many families Omagh Leisure Complex will forever be associated with this dreadful event.
"It cannot be easy to have to return to participate in the inquest hearings.
"But my strong wish was that the inquest should take place in Omagh rather than elsewhere and I am sure that was the wish of the families also."
He pointed out that it was not a criminal trial.
Many relatives hope that some day they will attend just such a hearing and come face to face with the two men seen abandoning the maroon Vauxhall Cavalier in the town on that tragic market day.
The basketball court at the leisure centre has now been transformed into a hi-tech courtroom at a cost of £1.5million. Every solicitor representing the families, and those like Michael Gallagher who has chosen to speak on behalf of his dead son Adrian, 21, were watching as each word of evidence was shown on computer screens in front of them.
Later Mr Gallagher challenged the bombers to come forward to "clear their consciences".
He said: "There are two sides to this story, the people who created a dangerous situation and the people tasked to deal with that danger - and it is only the latter we are getting."
He said the terrorists claimed the deaths were a terrible mistake, adding: "Maybe this might be the right time for them to coma forward and give their side of tin story and clear their consciences."
Television crews and reporters from Spain and France sat a more than 100 journalists at the back of the hall.
Between them and the relatives, visitors were seated, including leading churchmen and local MP Willie Thompson.
A policewoman collapsed at the back. She had fainted and helped out by other officers.
Solicitor Barry Fox, who was representing Avril Monaghan, 30, appealed to the coroner to have the un-born twins included on the official death list, quoting the 1948 UN Declaration on Human Rights.
Although obviously sympathetic to the plea, Mr Leckey deferred making a judgment until later.
Police handling of the terrorists' warning calls about the bombing was also under scrutiny yesterday.
Questions were raised about how the messages were relayed and acted on by officers. A picture also emerged of conflicting warnings coming through from the Real IRA.
Early witnesses told how the first telephone warnings were given of the bomb.
Margaret Hall, a programme assistant at Ulster Television in Belfast, took the first call at 2.30pm on August 15, 1998.
The male caller had a "thick, northern, country accent", she said.
He simply told her: "Bomb, courthouse, Omagh Main Street, 500lbs of explosives, 30 minutes."
He used the codeword "Martha Pope", the US peace aide who had worked in the North - the same code was used before a Real IRA bomb attack in Banbridge weeks earlier.
Three minutes later the same man rang back, saying the bomb would now detonate in 15 minutes.
Miss Hall left the witness box in tears. The bombers had claimed an other victim - a woman who simply answered a phone and it had turned her life upside down.
Then a Samaritan worker, given the name "Hillary Unknown", answered a bomb warning several minutes later in Coleraine.
Speaking from behind a partition to protect her identity, she said the caller "sounded sober - neither old or very young and he spoke with quite a gentle voice".
He told her the bomb was "200 yards up from the courthouse".
It was clear that every piece of evidence was going to be teased out until every fact surrounding the tragedy was revealed.
Another eight days have been set aside to examine in detail the chain of events leading from the first bomb warning to the explosion.
Before the inquest, relatives and victims gathered in another part of the complex for a prayer service.
They hope to repeat the prayers every day before going into court.
Their prayer ended with the line: "Allow us to live through this day with grace and truth."
As they filed out at the end of day one, God had answered their prayer.
Bouquets of flowers are still pinned to the hoardings that line the crossroads, covering damage caused by the explosion.
A crane hangs over the bomb site. Yesterday workmen continued the rebuilding of the town centre.
But the repairing of bodies and minds will not be as straightforward.