People united in prayer recall the horrors of blast

Hushed Mass-goers lingered outside Omagh's Sacred Heart Church after noon Mass yesterday, as if reluctant to leave the comfort of the building.

In fact, the service had taken place in the adjoining community hall, because the church is undergoing renovation. But the horror of Saturday united the congregation yesterday in prayer as rarely before.

Among those attending mass was Emma Kate Murphy (16), who had just collected her wages from the restaurant where she works part-time when the bomb went off on Saturday afternoon. She lost the money - "the purse was blown right out of my hand" - but she was extremely lucky to escape with her life.

"I can't remember anything except falling, and then everything went black."

She was taken to hospital afterwards, but the only physical evidence of her experience yesterday was some slight shrapnel wounds on her leg, and small shards of glass embedded in the back of her head.

Her older sister, Genevieve, who lives in Dublin but was home for the weekend, said everyone in the town was still reeling, unable to take in the extent of what had happened. The Murphy family endured three frantic hours after the bomb before they discovered that Emma Kate was alive and well, but other friends had not escaped so lightly.

A neighbour of the family, Geraldine Breslin, was among the dead and Genevieve thinks it is only because Emma Kate was so small that she escaped more serious injury. "Everyone around me was killed," she said. "Geraldine Breslin was right in front of me when the bomb went off."

Mrs Frances Gormley was another at Mass yesterday who was giving thanks for a near escape. "My daughter, Catherine, had just crossed the road and was speaking to Geraldine when it happened, but she was able to attend Mass here today," she said.

Mrs Gormley was for 25 years a local organiser of pilgrimages to Knock to pray for peace. She retired from it recently: and "now I think I'll have to go back to it again".