They died together, side-by-side, and that's the way they were carried to their grave yesterday. Three small white coffins with polished brass nameplates and photographs on top of Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn.
There was an awful silence as the coffins left their grandmother's neat bungalow in Rasharkin, Co Antrim. The hundreds of people gathered outside just stared as the family came out.
"Isn't it a terrible sight?" said a neighbour.
The boys' relatives acted as pallbearers. There were four for each coffin but you could tell by the ease with which they moved that that was far too many for the light, young bodies inside.
Their father, John Dillon, lovingly stroked the coffin he was carrying. Every few moments he laid his head on it, trying to get closer to the son inside. He was almost blinded by tears.
The boys' mother, Christine Quinn, seemed dazed as she followed the cortege, her eyes so red and sunken from crying. Her only surviving son, Lee (13), watched disbelievingly as he walked hand-in-hand with his grandmother.
His granny's favourite, he escaped death because he was staying with her the night his Ballymoney home was petrol-bombed.
The cortege travelled 10 miles to the Church of Our Lady and St Patrick in Ballymoney, which has itself been petrol-bombed by loyalists. Hundreds of people lined the route.
On lamp-posts outside the church, Orange Order posters demanded the right to march.
The church was packed to overflowing and hundreds more stood in the grounds. Many sobbed as the coffins were carried inside.
Father Peter Forde told mourners that God had plans for the boys "but someone, certainly not through God's will, stopped those plans". He spoke of their mother's pain in never again being able to hold or look after her sons, but promised God would take care of them until she joined them in Heaven.
A poem written by two local teenagers was read out:
"Why would someone do this is the question on our lips/Who would have so much evil at their fingertips/To take the lives of Richard, Mark and Jason in such a terrible way?/I know we will never, ever forget them, not even for a day."
The congregation burst into applause. Floral tributes to the boys lined the church walls. "Sleep in Peace Little Angels," said one from the Aran Islands. "To Three Beautiful Boys from a Family in England," said another.
After Requiem Mass the cortege returned to Rasharkin. Christine Quinn said she didn't want her sons buried in Ballymoney, and pledged never again to go back to the town.
The funeral procession made its way to a single grave in St Mary's Cemetery. The boys' uncle had helped to dig it the day before.
The rain poured down as the three small coffins were slowly lowered to the ground and the Quinns said goodbye to Richard, Mark and Jason.