Spain commemorated the first anniversary of the Madrid train bombings today with church bells and silent tributes to the 191 people who died in al-Qaeda's worst attack in Europe.
Relatives of some victims stayed home or left the country to avoid reliving raw memories of the attacks, which helped oust the Partido Popular from power and fuelled a year-long political squabble over who was to blame.
"The world mourns with you," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a news conference in Madrid, where other leaders gathered including Afghan President Hamid Karzai and King Mohammed of Morocco.
Flags flew at half-mast at NATO headquarters in Brussels, and a minute's silence was held in the European Parliament, where schoolchildren took the floor to denounce terrorism.
Some 650 churches throughout the Madrid area rang their bells for five minutes from 7.37am (06.37 Irish time), the time that 10 bombs packed in sports bags began exploding on four commuter trains three days before a general election.
A year later, people left candles and flowers at Madrid's Atocha station. One woman collapsed, trembling, and was taken away.
"I think people grew much closer that day because we realised that it could happen to anyone," Sonia Delgado, a 31-year-old office worker, said at Atocha station.
Trains packed with commuters continued to pull into the station, just as they had done on the fateful day a year ago.
Security was tight for the anniversary, with thousands of police on the streets and a NATO AWACS surveillance plane patrolling Spanish skies.
This afternoon the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern expressed his sympathy for the victims of the bombings.
In a statement Mr Ahern described the bombings as "a cruel and terrible tragedy for Spain, the Spanish people and for the whole of Europe."
"Nothing can compensate Spain or its people for the loss they have suffered. The bombings were an affront to the Spanish people. They were also an affront to humanity," he said. "The commemoration underlines the solidarity of Ireland, Spain, and our other partners in the European Union and in the international community in the long and hard fight against terrorism".
"We share a common determination that this evil will not prevail," he added.
Additional Reporting Reuters