It was a procession of pain through the town of Buncrana, the final journey of Oran Doherty (8), Shaun McLaughlin (12) and James Barker (12). Three hearses, side by side, carrying three small coffins. Three little boys killed ruthlessly and pointlessly, being taken to a country graveyard.
Images of indescribable sadness will haunt Buncrana.
Mrs Donna Barker, struggling to hold her head up, crying out: "Jamie, Jamie" at her son's coffin. Mr Micky Doherty tearing at his hair as Oran's body was taken from their home. Little Elizabeth O'Donnell reading aloud the poem for peace she had written with Shaun McLaughlin.
Three-year-old Oliver Barker clutching the hand of parish priest, Father Joe Carolan, as they walked to the graveyard.
Thousands turned out for the funerals. Townspeople did everything possible to make the tragedy more bearable, even lining the graves with flowers.
"They weren't put in graves, they were put into a bed of flowers," one of the undertakers said.
The funeral procession started in Knockala Drive, where Shaun and Oran lived four doors from each other. Sobbing and wailing filled the seaside air. Strong young men wiped tears from their eyes.
Hundreds walked behind the two coffins past the green where the boys played football every day. The wreaths told the story of their passion for soccer - a green and white one spelling Celtic on Oran's, a red and white Man United wreath on Shaun's. A Celtic flag was draped across Oran's coffin.
Sisters, mothers, aunts and little cousins held red carnations. They wrapped their arms around each other and gazed at the caskets.
People of all ages stood along the route - an elderly woman in bedroom slippers and using a walking aid, a little girl with her hands joined solemnly, a boy in a red Man United kit, a nurse in uniform, and fathers and mothers hugging their children with tears in their eyes. Everybody felt it could have been themselves.
On the Cockhill Road out of town the picture became even more distressing as a third hearse joined the other two: Donna and Victor Barker walking beside John and Patricia McLaughlin and Micky and Bernie Doherty.
At St Mary's Church in Cockhill a huge crowd waited. Children, their hands joined in a chain and wearing the red and grey uniform of Scoil Iosagain, lined the avenue, the innocent faces of the younger ones unable to understand what they were seeing. Pupils from Foyle and Londonderry College, James's school, also attended.
Many dignitaries were already in the church - the President, Mrs McAleese, who visited the three families earlier, the First Minister of the Northern Assembly, Mr David Trimble, the Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, Mrs Mary O'Rourke representing the Government, Mrs Nora Owen representing the opposition, the British ambassador, Mrs Veronica Sutherland, and the Spanish ambassador, Mr Jose Maria Sanz Pastor.
Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein had walked with the cortege from Knockala Drive. Four members of Celtic football club also attended.
Father Carolan also welcomed the Bishop of Nottingham, Dr Jim McGuinness, who represented the English and Welsh Bishops.
Father Carolan said it was very difficult to talk about the killings. "The whole thing was so disgusting and obscene. It would take tears from a stone."
During the Mass, prayers for all the victims of the bombing were said in English, Irish and Spanish. The names of the 28 people killed were read out.
Father Shane Bradley, the local curate and a native of Omagh, gave the homily. He said the people of Buncrana were in "a strange and alien place", a place people from other parts of the North had been to before.
"We got here against our will, as a result of a terrifying evil act, of people who seem to have such a distorted grip on reality that they thought their cause could be furthered by the planting of this bomb.
"They have wounded over 200 people and caused emotional turmoil for countless others, by bringing our Spanish visitors and ourselves to this brutal place. I can only pray that they may truly see and grasp what they have done and repent in contrite sorrow."
He said that for the people of the whole island it was not a new experience. "And yet this seems the worst, coming as it does in the wake of so much hope and with the glimmers of a new light dawning over our dark history. Is this our saddest moment, our darkest hour? If it is, then will it herald a new dawn? I hope and pray so."
Referring to the Gospel reading, he said it seemed "as if God turned away at that moment on Saturday in my home town of Omagh, for truly it was a godless moment".
However, he said, before the dust had even settled on the streets a new life had begun "in the overwhelming kindness of the people of Omagh and in the compassion and care of everyone".