Families bereaved by the 1998 Omagh bombing gathered in the town today to mark its anniversary, amid fears that dissident republicans run the risk of causing a similar atrocity.
The car bomb by the breakaway Real IRA in the heart of the small Co Tyrone town claimed the lives of 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
The single biggest loss of life of the Troubles forced the dissidents to scale down their deadly activities, but 12 years later there are growing fears that republican groups opposed to the peace process are recklessly risking a disaster on the same scale.
In the last two weeks dissidents attacked a Londonderry police station with a car bomb which detonated while the area was still being evacuated.
Three separate under-car bomb attacks narrowly missed claiming the lives of three people linked to the security forces.
And in Lurgan on Saturday a no-warning bomb hidden in a bin injured three children, the youngest only two years old.
Sinn Féin representative and Northern Ireland deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness claims the Government is in secret talks with dissidents aimed at ending violence.
History has led observers to be sceptical of the subsequent denials from the authorities.
But there is some sympathy with the analysis of Secretary of State Owen Paterson that even if talks were to be convened, the disparate nature of dissident republicanism, means it would be difficult to know who exactly to speak to. In addition, he has noted, the various groups remain tied to the continued use of violence.
And while the Government-appointed watchdog, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), has pointed to some co-operation between dissident groups, they remain a loose collection of dangerous organisations with no central command.
PA