The silence has lifted in Omagh. Nine days after the bomb blast the people have returned to the centre of this Co Tyrone town.
It began in the morning as traders arrived and were faced with the difficult task of turning the keys in the front doors and resuming business. Gradually the streets became fuller. On the surface the hustle and bustle of ordinary town life appeared to be going on.
But this is no longer an ordinary place, and everywhere evidence of the blast was all too visible, from the boarded-up windows to the bunches of flowers that continued to be left at various places in memory of the 28 dead.
A high, green barrier blocks the view of the worst of the bomb's destruction.
Almost all businesses on the main shopping streets appeared to be open. The owners spoke of the psychological difficulty of coming in to open up but said they knew this first step towards "normality" had to be taken.
A DUP councillor, Mr Oliver Gibson, aptly described it as "creeping normality", a very necessary part of the healing process, he said.
One of the busiest shops yesterday, and also one of the saddest, was Wattersons. Parents and children were there shopping for school uniforms for the new term. All thoughts were with the four staff members who died in the bombing.
They were no longer standing at their cash desks, offering advice on style or chatting about the weather. Their absence was palpable.
"We had 27 members of staff and its down to 23 now," said Mr Neville Hagan, who works in the shop's office. "It's been really hard but lots of people have come in to offer their sympathies. They would all have known the girls that were killed."
Outside people stopped to read the message of sympathy on the bouquets.
There and all along the street they could be heard discussing the atrocity. They swapped information on the condition of the injured, (61 people are still in hospital, five in critical condition), told their own stories of where they were when the blast happened, and commented on the amazing kindness of people from the South, from the UK and from all over the world.
But they still shook their heads in wonder that such an appalling act could have been carried out in their town.
At 9 a.m. yesterday morning the entire staff of Oxfam gathered, backed up by colleagues from the Belfast shop, "for a bit of support" to open for business.
It was very hard, said the manager, Ms Mabel Kennedy, as they remembered teenagers Lorraine Wilson and Samantha McFarland, and the brother and nephew of another shop worker, Ms Betty White, who were also killed. "We've had people in this morning who have never shopped here. They just wanted to sympathise," she explained.
The courtesy of these Omagh people, even after 10 days of being in the media spotlight, is unfailing and quite remarkable to experience.
Any words of thanks for a conversation is met with: "No, thankyou for your sympathy. It would be a poor day when we could not say a few words to people."
At the top of the town a minute's silence was held at the sitting of the Crown Court in Omagh courthouse yesterday morning, the place where the terrorists said the bomb had been planted. Walking on the street outside, Mr Paddy Bogan, a former chairman of Omagh District Council, surveyed the reopened town and spoke about the people who were emerging from their numbness and expressing words of anger.
"Last week there was a terrible cloud over the town. People were just so shocked," he said.
"Now we must get on with raising the town up from the dust and ashes. Today is the first day that they are speaking angrily. They will be seeking vengeance for what happened."
Other realities were also beginning to rear their head yesterday. Traders find it a very difficult matter to address, but even those without any physical bomb damage are faced with a huge loss of income.
According to the president of the town's chamber of commerce, Mr Michael Gaine, the Northern Ireland Office only compensates those businesses physically damaged in an attack. He said they were now facing financial ruin, having had a very tough season.
"In the circumstances they do not want to make a song and dance about it but many are facing financial ruin. It is the last straw for many people. I have tried all the government agencies and they tell me there is no facility available."
He said a discretionary fund should be set up to help these business people. They are totally opposed to having a "bomb damage sale", which is fairly traditional in the North following an explosion, he said.
Around 30 businesses are closed due to bomb damage.
These issues were raised yesterday morning at a meeting held at Omagh District Council offices. It was attended by people who had travelled from other places with experience of rebuilding following destruction - Manchester, Ban bridge and Portadown.
High profile visitors continued to come to the town. The outgoing US ambassador, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith, who had earlier spent time in Buncrana with the families of the three young boys who died, said she believed the blast marked the end of terrorist activity in Ireland.
The wonderful thing that had emerged from it, she said, was the "unity of the island in condemning it".
There was a great lesson for all of us and "that is where it will continue and we will have peace".
The British Defence Secretary, Mr George Robertson, laid flowers at Drumragh Bridge yesterday afternoon. He said he was in the North to speak to military personnel. He had heard some "horrifying accounts but also tales of great bravery and distinction".