Omagh Leisure Centre is much like any other such facility in the North. Outside, the facade is dominated by twisting blue and yellow waterslides. Inside, signs direct people to a handball alley and a swimming pool.
But leisure pursuits were the last thing on the minds of the families who filed into the hall - usually the venue for indoor football tournaments - shortly before 11 a.m. yesterday. The sporting space had been transformed into a courtroom for the first day of the inquest into the 29 men, women and children killed two years ago in the Omagh bombing.
On the day the bomb exploded, the same complex served as a centre where relatives of some of the victims, who also included two unborn twin baby girls, endured the agonising wait to learn the fate of their loved ones. Over the next four weeks they will return daily to relive each moment of the nightmare that began on August 25th, 1998.
It had been a fine summer day, said the coroner, Mr John Leckey, addressing the courtroom, and Omagh's Market Street was thronged with shoppers. The first person to become aware this small town normality was about to be shattered was UTV programme assistant Margaret Hall. She took the stand as the first of more than 150 witnesses due to give evidence, speaking softly as she recounted the initial telephone bomb warning she received. The chilling notes of the conversation which she tapped into her computer at the time appeared on one of two video screens in the courtroom: IRA . . . Caller Rang Twice . . . Bomb Omagh Town. The code word given was Malta, or Martha, Pope, she said.
Another witness was allowed to sit behind a wooden screen as she gave her evidence to protect her identity. She was a member of the Samaritans in Coleraine and had also received a warning call, believed to have been diverted from the organisation's Omagh office. The man said the bomb was 200 yards from the Courthouse, High street, Main Street, she said. The families of victims expressed relief that day one of the inquest was now over. Speaking afterwards, Michael Gallagher, whose son Adrian was killed in the bomb, said it had been a difficult day. "It's been very painful to listen particularly to the bomb warnings . . . in that very room I spent some of the worst days and hours of my life."
Even those who concluded their evidence yesterday will take time to get over the experience. Clearly shaken by having to appear at the inquest, Margaret Hall wept as she walked away from the witness box. Hers are unlikely be the last tears shed at Omagh Leisure Centre over the coming weeks.