By the mid 1990s, Sean’s thoughts had come to slowing down business wise, but he never made it to retirement, Conor says.

Conor’s daughter Sara was born in April 1996, the first granddaughter in the family.

It gave Sean “a new lease of life,” he tells the inquiry.

He would find any excuse to see his granddaughter as much as he could.

“He would even call at the childminders while we were at work,” Conor says.

Conor and his family, who lived in Bangor, had discussed going to Omagh to see the grandparents on the day of the bomb but a neighbour was having a birthday party.

They had heard about the bomb in Omagh when shopping in Bangor later that afternoon.

Conor says Sean opened a bakery next to Omagh’s old showgrounds and went onto open four other outlets, supplying local hotels and supermarkets.

A manufacturing site was needed and, at one stage, Sean employed about 30 people.

In the 1980s, Conor recalls, his father secured a deal with Harrods in London to supply Irish bread.

Sean had noticed “they had breads from all over the world but nothing from Ireland”.

Conor would go on to work full time in the family business.

“My father and I were very close in those years,” he says.

His dad “cared about his staff”, Conor adds, some would say he was “too soft, but no one would say a bad word about him”.

He would donate to local charities and St Vincent De Paul would benefit form any surplus baked goods weekly.

Conor McGrath says his father’s very positive and social outlook made him a natural salesman and meant he would go onto work for bigger companies.

That took him away from the family a lot in the 1970s as he worked across the island of Ireland.

He recalls one deal his dad made meant the family holidayed at a hotel in Westport in County Mayo.

“He loved making deals,” Conor says, adding that the family garage when he was a child would be filled with “goods and samples… from pork scratchings to bike trailer and land yachts”.

But, he adds, his dad had always wanted to run his own business in his hometown.

The inquiry now hears, via the solicitor, the witness statement from Sean McGrath’s son Conor.

He describes how his dad suffered serious injuries in the bomb and that he then fought for “three agonising weeks” before dying in hospital on 5 September 1998.

Sean was one of five siblings and the family had lived above their grocery shop on Market Street.

He loved going to the cinema, was a fan of westerns and of John Wayne, his favourite movie was The Quiet Man.

Sean’s father died young, meaning he began to work in the family shop at a young age, Conor says.

He married his sweetheart Nuala in September 1961, going on to become the proud father of four children.

The family spent many happy summers in their caravan in County Donegal.

"If my dad had a superpower, he would have been the protector," Noeleen's statement says.

"He would have been horrified to know that we spent three weeks in a horrible limbo at the hospital wondering if he would pull through.

"He couldn't protect us from that hideous time"

She says when her dad died there was "a sort of relief" but also "the light went out for a long time".

"Remembering him has rekindled the light," she says, adding he would have "insisted" on her getting on with life.

"I am lucky to have been his daughter," she says.

A statement is now read on behalf of Sean McGrath’s daughter Noeleen by a solicitor.

It begins by paraphrasing Charles Dickens: “He was the best of men and not the worst of men”.

Noeleen says her dad was “considerate, gentle and kind to a fault”, adding he was supportive of everything she ever did.

He encouraged her lifelong love of reading, was so proud when she went to university and when she trained as a teacher.

Injustice in any form, made him cross, she says, before recalling a time when she was a teenager and had been “hauled up” before the headmistress, a nun, at school for questioning Catholic doctrine.

Her dad was a devout Catholic, she tells the inquiry, but he told the headmistress, “questioning was the only way anyone can learn”.

“He was proud to support my inquiring mind,” she says.

Lawyer Paul Greaney KC begins by reading a statement from the McGrath family.

"We wish to express their thanks to the inquiry for allowing the opportunity to provide some sense of the great person Sean was, however difficult this is to put into words," it says.

"The family have found this process very difficult, but they have also found it equally important."

Mr Greaney continues to say the McGrath family also thanks the inquiry for being able to have the opportunity to remember Sean.

"We hope that the statements we have prepared will be of assistance to the inquiry," the statement says.

Image source, McGrath family

The inquiry will now hear tributes to Sean McGrath, who died at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast three weeks after the explosion.

He had been caught up in the blast that happened on the same street that he was born on 61 years earlier.

The retired businessman and married father-of-four was described by one friend as "one of the loveliest men ever to walk the streets of Omagh".

Inquiry chairman Lord Turnbull follows up the pen portrait of Samantha, by noting her death is yet another example of "the senseless killing of children.

He goes on to say he wonders if there could be any greater contrast between Samantha, who he described as "generous and socially minded," and people who "would walk away from a car loaded with explosives in the middle of the main street on a sunny Saturday afternoon".

As he brings the testimony to a close, Mr Greaney says so many people attended Samantha's funeral, held four days after her murder, that mourners had to stand outside.

The inquiry again pauses to view a photograph of the teenager.

Earlier, Mr Greaney told the inquiry that Samantha’s father Gerald and brother Richard were watching the proceedings by the video link, while her cousin - also named Gerald - was attending the hearing in person.

On the day of the bombing Samantha had been working as a volunteer shop assistant in the Oxfam shop along with her friend Lorraine Wilson.

She had volunteered there one day a week over the summer and was also a volunteer for Barnardos.

The shop had been evacuated in response to an inaccurate warning issued by the bombers - which said the bomb was in a different location to where it really was.

Samantha, it is believed, did not want to go too far as she had the keys to the shop.

She is described as “popular, diligent and a person who passed with flying colours the test of life”.

But, the statement adds, she was denied the opportunity to pass life’s milestones – like her A-levels and her driving test.

Samantha had friends of all religions and all ages, the inquiry hears, a "private but sociable person who touched the lives of many others."

Day seven of the inquiry begins with a photo of Samantha McFarland being shown to the inquiry, before a solicitor’s statement is read by Paul Greaney KC, senior counsel to the inquiry.

Samantha was the youngest of three children and had been due to be a bridesmaid at her older brother’s wedding in the month after the bomb, the inquiry is told.

The teenager, had “a lovely personality”, with a “kind heart and genuine kindness”.

She got on with people, had been learning to drive and loved music and books, and had a pet pony that she looked after.

Image source, McFarland family

This morning's hearing will begin with a tribute to teenager Samantha McFarland.

The 17-year-old was killed alongside her best friend Lorraine Wilson, 15, whilst working as a voluntary shop assistant for the charity Oxfam.

She was a former pupil at Omagh High School and was studying for her A-levels at Strabane College.

Her mother took on her voluntary work at the Oxfam shop after her death as a tribute to her.

You can read more about the 29 victims here.

The stream has now begun from the inquiry at Strule Arts Centre.

To watch, click the play button at the top of the page.

We will also bring you text updates here.

Image source, Family Pictures

Hello and welcome back to our coverage of the Omagh Bombing Inquiry and the seventh day of hearings.

The inquiry is examining whether the worst atrocity of the Troubles could have been prevented.

Twenty-nine people, including a woman expecting twins, were murdered in the Real IRA attack on 15 August 1998.

Commemorative hearings from victims' families and friends began last week.

This morning we are due to hear tributes to Samantha McFarland, 17, Sean McGrath, 61, and 57-year-old Elizabeth Rush.

The inquiry is due to resume at 10:00 GMT.

The inquiry has ended for the day and we will now pause our live coverage.

We have heard tributes to 17-year-old Brenda Logue from her brother Cathal.

These were followed by a commemoration of 17-year-old Jolene Marlow on behalf of her mother, Bridie Marlow.

Finally, the inquiry heard heard a statement on behalf of Louise McCrory, whose father Brian McCrory died in the blast.

Today's live page was edited by Luke Sproule and Ralph Hewitt and was written by Barry O'Connor and Daniel Logan.

More on today's proceedings can be found here.

Our live coverage will resume tomorrow when the inquiry sits again at 10:00 GMT.

Lord Turnbull, the inquiry chairman, says the tributes to Mr McCrory make clear he was a family man who "never raised his voice, loved children and was loved by the children he met".

He says it was a "cruel tragedy" that although many members of Mr McCrory's family had benefited from his love of photography, it was his love of photography that meant he was in Omagh on the day of the bombing.

He was visiting the chemist to drop off film to be developed and pick up a prescription.

Lord Turnbull thanks the family for their tributes to "such a patently decent, likeable and much-missed man".

The inquiry has now finished hearing evidence for the day and will return on Thursday morning.

Ms McCrory says she and her siblings "missed out the chance to grow with him" and "experience life with him as adults".

She says their partners missed out on their personalities "prior to the bomb".

Mr McCrory never got to meet his son and daughter in-laws.

"Likewise they never got the opportunity to meet or form a relationship with this great man," she says.

Ms McCrory says both she and her brothers began their wedding days with an early morning visit to their father's grave "to be able to share just a part of the day with him".

"Our mother would have to go through another major family event without her best friend by her side," she said.

"He was missed so very much at every one of our weddings. Instead of him being by our side we had a picture of him at our wedding reception.

"It was the closest we've been to having him by our side."

Ms McCrory's statement continues: "My mum lost her one-in-a-million husband, her best friend, confidant and father of her children.

"My brothers, Colin and Brian, and I lost our friend and father."

She says he was patient and kind.

"He was the best father a son or daughter could ever have."

Image source, Family handout