The abrupt end to the lives of several teenagers who were just finishing school and planning their careers was described at the Omagh bombing inquests yesterday.
Brenda Logue, who was 17, played in goal for St Theresa's, a local Gaelic football team. A sixth-year pupil at the high school in Carrickmore, Co Tyrone, she was expecting her GCSE results and hoped to go on to study leisure and tourism at technical school.
Yesterday her mother, Mrs Mary Logue, sobbed quietly in the witness-box as counsel to the coroner, Mrs Gemma Loughran, read her deposition.
Mrs Logue recounted how she first found her mother, Philomena, among the debris, and then went out over the rubble in the street, calling for Brenda. She saw many bodies, but could not find her daughter. "I knew in my heart Brenda wasn't alive," she said.
The post-mortem evidence described her multiple injuries were of such severity as to have caused immediate death.
A legal representative of the family said that Mrs Logue had not got over her loss, nor would she get over it, but she had asked that thanks and appreciation be expressed to the emergency services and the many who had offered help and comfort.
Jolene Marlow, from Eskra, Omagh, aged 17, was a pupil at Loreto Convent School. She had just finished her A-levels and hoped to study physiotherapy at the University of Ulster.
The pathologist, Prof Jack Crane, said that internal and external bleeding due to shrapnel wounds would have caused Jolene's immediate death.
A statement read on behalf of the family expressed their thanks to all who helped in the aftermath of the bombing. They appealed to the people who had carried out the atrocity "to consider the pain and destruction they caused", and said they hoped that no other family would have to suffer what the people of Omagh had gone through.
Lorraine Wilson, of Omagh, was aged 15. She was working in the Oxfam charity shop with her best friend, Samantha McFarland, who was also killed by the bomb. She was pronounced dead by an army doctor at the scene.
The inquest on Mr Brian McCrory (54), of Omagh, was told that his injuries indicated that he was within very close range of the explosion.
A crane driver with three children, he had been in the town to buy paint to decorate his house. Ms Geraldine Breslin (43), was one of three employees of Watterson's clothes shop who was killed in the bombing. She died at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, eight hours after the explosion.
Medical evidence was given that she sustained multiple injuries and could not be resuscitated.
Mr Adrian Gallagher (21), of Omagh, was an only son. He had gone into town with a friend and they went into Watterson's shop. When a warning was given of the bomb they were directed down Market Street by the police. The friend, Mr Kieran Barrett, told the inquest that when the explosion happened, everything went blank. He realised that Adrian was not with him and started to look for him, but was too weak and fell down.
Medical evidence was given that Mr Gallagaher's death would have been very rapid.
After yesterday's inquests, Mr Michael Duffy, leader of the Community Trauma Team, said that this had been the most difficult week so far for the families of victims. They had been exposed to the detailed horror of what happened, but they had also heard of the heroism which had been shown. The inquests resume today.