The inquest into the deaths of those killed in the single worst day of violence during the troubles finally got under way today, 30 years after the Dublin and Monaghan bombings which claimed 34 lives.
Families of the bereaved were the first witnesses to take to the witness box and gave harrowing evidence of the effect the atrocity had had on their lives.
Peggy Watchford, the grandniece of John Dargle, told the hearing into the deaths of 34 people that her uncle was bombed into oblivion during the 1974 attacks.
Gertie Shields said her aunt, Concepta Dempsey, never regained consciousness before her life-support machine was switched off a month after she was caught up in the attack on Talbot Street, Dublin.
She issued a heartfelt plea to the 10 members of the jury charged with finding a verdict in the deaths.
"Remember that each and every one of these people were part of loving families, they are not just numbers of people killed on a particular day," she said.
Timothy Grace, whose wife Breda Grace died in the attack on Talbot Street, said he had never recovered from the bombing.
"Like all the other victims, it had a devastating effect on me and my family," he said.
"My son was a year old and he never knew his mother, I've never come across anyone else who never knew their mother but thankfully he turned out very well and he is now running my business.
Elizabeth Gleason, the sister of Siobhán Rice, 19, who died in the Talbot Street bombing, said her family had always felt they lacked the detail of her sister's death.
"Thirty years ago seems like yesterday," she said.
Michael McCarthy, the brother of Collette Doherty who was killed while nine months pregnant in Talbot Street, said her family still do not know what happened to Collette's baby.
Helen Tuohy, the niece of Christopher Fitzgerald whose wife Lily was killed in the attack on Talbot Street, said the bomb was also a contributory factor in the death of her uncle three years later.
"Christy never really recovered from his injuries and the loss of his wife," she said.
"I was told there was not an inch of his body that didn't contain slivers of glass and shrapnel.
"It was traumatic for him and he never got over it," he added.
The inquest, which is being held at the Dublin International Arbitration Centre, will also hear evidence from survivors, eye witnesses, Garda witnesses, technical and forensic witnesses during a process, which is expected to last around two weeks.
The Justice For the Forgotten group, which has campaigned to have those responsible for the massacre held to account, expressed relief that the inquests were beginning at last.
Dublin city coroner Dr Brian Farrell said it was necessary to have a full and thorough inquiry into the circumstances of the deaths.
Ms Margaret Urwin, spokeswoman for the justice group, said the coroner had expressed his wish to consider evidence of allegations of conspiracy theories in relation to those responsible, as well as the possible existence of a conspiracy to cause the explosions in Dublin and Monaghan on May 17th, 1974.
The inquests were officially reopened last year after being closed or adjourned within two weeks of the bombings almost 30 years ago.
They were then adjourned until all evidence could be gathered and until Justice Henry Barron's report into the bombings had been published in December.
The Government directed the fresh investigation after persistent allegations over a number of years of British security force collusion in the attacks.