Northern Ireland, OMAGH BOMB ANNIVERSARY

Omagh and me - 10 years on
'How I survived the bombing'
By Judith Cummings
BBC News


At ten past three today, I will remember the moment I survived 10 years ago.

I was 21 years old, I had just graduated from university with a degree that really should have been better, and I was spending the summer at home to gather my thoughts about what the big wide world would hold for me.

With nothing much happening, I was happy to work a day in a friend's shop while they were on holiday. I was filling in for another member of staff and it was my first day on the job.

It turned out to be a very quiet day money-wise, my friend and I were fretting that the owners would come home to a bad day's takings. But then at about 2pm business started to pick up.

More and more people came into the shop - when we asked a customer about the increase in numbers down 'our end' of the town we were told about a bomb-scare up at the courthouse.

We had no fear and were glad to hear the till ringing a bit more frequently.

In my 21 years, I had lived a life removed from the Troubles - yes I saw it on TV but it never came too close.

I was a Protestant who had been brought up to have friends of both faiths, some of my first friends were the children of my parents' Catholic friends. It wasn't until I went to primary school that I really gained Protestant friends.

I had spent the previous three years telling my university friends in England that Northern Ireland really wasn't that bad anymore and that I lived in a quiet little town, where nothing really happened and where pretty much everyone got along.

Explosion

Then on 15 August my life changed.
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