The long list of dead, ranging from babies to grandmothers, from schoolgirls to housewives and fathers, was read through gravely once again by the coroner at the Omagh bombing inquests as he drew a legal line yesterday under the lost lives of the victims.
With each name, Mr John Leckey delivered a brief, neutral and clinical statement of the injuries that caused death - a shocking litany that illustrated the toll exacted by the atrocity in terms of torn and mutilated bodies.
Yesterday's proceedings concluded the inquest on 28 of the 29 named victims of the 500lb car-bomb planted by the dissident "Real IRA" in a busy shopping street of the Co Tyrone town on August 15th, 1998. The final inquest will take place tomorrow on the 12-year-old schoolboy, James Victor Barker, whose parents have been unable to travel from abroad until now.
The coroner referred to the restrictions placed on his verdict options under Northern Ireland inquest rules, as compared with England and Wales. If the inquests were being held there, he said, he would have had no hesitation in returning a verdict of unlawful killing, which covers all cases of homicide.
He was not, however, able to do that, and the finding he would return for each of the deceased was that they died from injuries sustained as a result of a carbomb explosion in Omagh, and that subsequently responsibility for the bomb had been claimed on behalf of the "Real IRA".
Mr Leckey went slowly through the names of the victims, their occupations and the injuries that proved fatal. He said afterwards he appreciated how difficult it must have been for families and relatives of the deceased to listen to this list.
Mr Leckey also referred to the issue raised on behalf of a number of families concerning the evacuation operation by the RUC. It had been suggested there might have been inadequacies in these matters and that he should exercise his power and make a report to the Chief Constable or to the Secretary of State, even though no formal application had been made to him to do so.
"I have formed the view that there is no basis for me to make a report either to the Chief Constable or to the Secretary of State," he said. However, he commented that it was inevitable that after a major incident like this there would be a searching appraisal within the RUC of what had happened on the day and the actions taken in response to it, to see whether any lessons could be learned for the future.
He was sure this question would be addressed, and that counsel for the Chief Constable would report as a matter of course, and he was satisfied that the RUC was a responsible body which included within its brief the safety of the public.
Mr Stephen Ritchie, counsel for the Chief Constable, extended sympathy to the families and said the bravery of those who had assisted at the scene of the bombing had been in sharp contrast to the sheer callous and brutal disregard for human life and suffering shown by the terrorists.