Stanley McCombe's statement starts by describing how he and Ann had just celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary at the time of her death.

To try and express the loss in our lives is impossible," he says.

"We only hope to express the great person that Ann was and the loss in our lives since the Omagh bomb.

"Ann was a wonderful and very, very caring person and I suppose that is why I fell in love and married her.

"I think she was the kindest-hearted person that I ever known, and she cared for everybody."

Mr McCombe's statement describes Ann as a good Christian who loved her church, her family and everyone around her.

After a break for lunch we are back hearing tributes to victims.

First this afternoon we will hear a witness statement about Ann McCombe on behalf of her husband Stanley.

She was a shop assistant at Watterson's drapers in Omagh.

The 48-year-old was killed while she was on a tea break with her colleague Geraldine Breslin.

Chairman of the Omagh Bombing Inquiry, Rt Hon Lord Turnball, said Mr Gallagher's journey has made him a "figurehead" for many of those impacted by the Omagh bombing.

He notes how Mr Gallagher has become known to senior politicians and governments of various countries, including former Taoiseach, Simon Harris.

Lord Turnball recognises "a long and demanding journey" and his success in challenging the decision of the previous Secretary of State.

He said it is clear after hearing Mr Gallagher's testimony that he was a father who dearly loved his son, he notes how Aiden's life was full of love which was cut short.

Lord Turnball also noted the displays of collective condolence and support are a tribute to the care and humanity of the community, which stands in stark contrast to those responsible for the bombing.

The inquiry has now broken for an hour for lunch.

Aiden Gallagher's sister Cat says her family's life was "measured in two phases - before the bomb and after the bomb - two very different lives".

She recalls feeling like "a zombie" during his wake as people came to pay their respects.

"I could not sleep, eat or even change my clothes," she said.

"I felt guilty when I ate the foods he loved. I couldn't watch the TV shows we enjoyed together and I was afraid to smile in case people thought I had forgot about him. I was living in turmoil."

She says his death also had a "profound effect" on their parents.

Cat says they had always been "over-protective" with their children, but this accelerated into "suffocation mode" after Aiden's death.

"Every time I left the house they thought I wasn't coming back," she said.

We are now hearing from Aiden's sister Cat, who describes leaving the house on the morning of the bombing after seeing Aiden lying in bed sleeping off the night before, still in his shirt and jeans

"I never imagined this would be the last time I saw Aiden," Cat says.

She describes hearing the explosion and rushing upstairs to watch out from her bedroom skylight window as black smoke encircled the town.

“I felt so helpless, all I could do was pray and that was what I did,” she says, describing how she locked herself in the bathroom, sat on the edge of the bath and prayed.

She describes wondering who was with Aiden when he died.

“Did he lie on the street on his own?” she says she wondered.

She talks of how painful the aftermath of his death was, when she felt unable to even eat the food her brother loved.

"I could not allow myself to believe he was dead," she says.

"I even convinced myself he never existed."

Mr Gallagher's statement describes how it was "heart-breaking" watching everyone in his family grieve and that it made him feel "helpless".

He says after Aiden's death the house was quiet with "no buzz" and "no engines revving", there was "no joy, no laughter".

Mr Gallagher says the door on Aiden's room was closed, with everything how he left it, and so too were his tools and projects.

He says the projects were left untouched until they rotted and fell apart, Aiden's plans in life would never be fulfilled.

"His chair would remain empty and part of us empty too," he says.

Image source, Family handout.

Another section of Michael Gallagher's written statement is read out to the inquiry.

In it he says when he heard the announcement there was going to be a public inquiry, it was the first time since the bombing that he was “lost for words”.

“I found it very difficult when he [the then Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris] said those words. Those are words that I desperately wanted to hear for so long," he says.

“I remember it was difficult – difficult but in a very pleasant way.

“My immediate thoughts were of Aiden, a 21-year-old man with all his life ahead of him.

"My thoughts were with all the other families who lost loved ones and how each of their lives could have been so different.

"My thoughts were with all those who were injured and what they have had to endure every day since the bomb.

“I may not have many years left and like many people in life we don’t always get to make the choices that we may have wished.

"I did not make the choice on 15 August 1998 to have to go to a makeshift mortuary to identify my son.

"I did not make the choice to deliver the message to my wife and daughters that Aiden would not be coming home but what I did decide was that I would use every power in my being to fight for justice for Aiden and all those who suffered as a result of the Omagh bomb.

“All I have ever wanted was to find out the truth as to how and why the Omagh bomb happened and why 31 innocent lives had to be lost that day.”

During his long campaign for justice, Michael Gallagher has held meetings with several Northern Ireland secretaries of state.

He says his relationship with some of them was better than others.

He recalls one meeting "when the secretary of state actually fell asleep during the meeting".

Mr Gallagher says he didn't know if they had nodded off through "boredom" but he described the incident as "quite astonishing".

The campaigner also singled out some of the post-holders for praise however, saying he had a good relationship with Peter Mandelson and Chris-Heaton Harris.

"It's a shocking thought that had individuals acted earlier in this campaign that the Real IRA carried out, not only the Omagh bomb could have been prevented but others may have been prevented," Michael Gallagher tells the inquiry.

He then talks about the process which led to a public inquiry being announced.

He says when he met the then Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton Harris and his team, there was a good atmosphere and describes Harris was a "breathe of fresh air".

Mr Gallagher remarks how it felt that they were among people who were "genuinely listening to us".

He says he owes a "huge gratitude" to Harris, who took the final decision that there would be a public inquiry.

Michael Gallagher acknowledges the Northern Ireland police investigation into the bombing was "significant and substantial" and he said the victims' families were on the side of the investigators.

He says there was co-operation from gardaí (Irish police) but not enough and he would have preferred a "joint cross-border investigation".

"There were a number of [previous] failed attacks where the guards had intercepted Real IRA or dissident groups bringing bombs across the border," he said.

Mr Gallagher says although the Good Friday Agreement was in place by the time of the Omagh bombing, he felt full co-operation between police forces had not yet "bedded in".

The campaigners have always pointed out that the Omagh bomb was built in and transported from the Republic of Ireland, and the bombers escaped back over the Irish border after the explosion.

Mr Gallagher says a dispute between the Police Ombudsman and the police following a Police Ombudsman report into the bombing was "difficult".

He said the families' only concern was that the investigation was on track and that those responsible would be brought before the courts with evidence and convicted.

Mr Gallagher says he "couldn't understand why that didn't happen".

Michael Gallagher tells the inquiry that the people who carried out the Omagh bomb were "highly prolific" bombers who had been linked to up to 13 previous attacks in the run up to the atrocity.

He says the "investigation had shown that their modus operandi was the same".

He adds similarities had been identified in the explosives they used and the construction of the power timer unit.

A phone number linked to the bombing was the same as the mobile linked to a previous attack.

"So there were many clues to who those people were," Mr Gallagher says.

Michael Gallagher tells the inquiry that while people often describe the Omagh bombing as the "worst atrocity of the Troubles, it is actually the first atrocity of peacetime".

Mr Gallagher talks about taking a civil case against five people who the families believed were responsible for and involved in the bombing.

He says he and other members of the victim support group were always at the "forefront" of holding those responsible to account.

Mr Gallagher says he initially believed there were people "better qualified than me" to take the lead in a campaigning role.

Th initial meeting was on 8 September 1998, when some of the victims were still in hospital.

He was voted to be chairperson in that meeting, but recounts he was "naïve" and he had to research what a chairman did.

Mr Gallagher says the group was formed to find out more about those who died and so families could support each other.

He says he wanted to know more about the bombing and the organisations involved.

Mr Gallagher describes how he travelled around Europe and further afield meeting other victims and says he us "proud" of the work the group did.

But he adds that, with the benefit of hindsight, he wishes he had spent more time with his own family.

We're now taking a short break.

Michael Gallagher helped to found the Omagh Support and Self-Help Group for bomb victims to share their experiences.

"We were people who came through a common suffering," he says.

But he adds that the group "didn't initially set out to campaign" for justice for the victims.

"We left the other issues such as the policing to the police and we were happy to do that," he says.

Michael Gallagher, who has been the public face of the years-long campaign for this public inquiry, was asked how he came to be involved in the movement.

He explains that he had worked alongside his mechanic son in a garage, where there were constant reminders of the explosion.

"After the bomb I tried to go back into that garage on my own and I found it extremely difficult," he recalls.

"Aiden's coat was still hanging on the peg."

He says he "was continuously thinking about what had happened" and at one point he decided that he had to "make the Omagh bomb part of my life".

Michael Gallagher tells the inquiry he still feels Aiden has never left.

He says the family talk about him everyday and that he is "very much a part of our life and always will be".

Mr Gallagher gives the example that if they buy a new car, they always wonder what Aiden would have made of it.

He said it became "painful" to meet somebody and talk about the loss of Aiden, which meant they went shopping in Strabane or Cookstown instead of Omagh to have a "breather" and a "sense of normality".

A section of the written statement from Michael Gallagher is now read out in which he says his family were not involved in political disagreements during the Troubles, and had friends on both sides of the community.

He says his son Aiden "was never interested in politics, he had no time for it".

"Many of Aiden's friends were Protestant," his statement says.

"We didn't discriminate - people were our friends and that was the bottom line.

"Many of the people that were the first to hold our hands and be there for us were Protestants and I think it's important that people know that"

Mr Gallagher is now asked about something which has come up before at the inquiry - the role of the media.

He says one morning Mr Gallagher opened the door to a journalist and he invited her in.

Mr Gallagher's brother, James, came into the room where he asked the journalist who she was and said "you're the people that always get it wrong".

Michael Gallagher says he had a "split second" where he had to decide whether to engage with the journalist.

Mr Gallagher says he felt if she returned to London where she wrote an inaccurate story would have felt that it was his fault.

So he told her about Aiden and after that he spoke to his family and decided to engage with the media in order to tell the world about the victims of the Omagh bombing.

Mr Gallagher says "it was difficult but it was important" speaking to the media but they needed to tell the world of the "wickedness" and share the lives of those who suffered.

Michael Gallagher says he went to the carpark where he told Aiden to park, and in the car park there were only two cars and one was Aiden's.

He said then he knew "they were in trouble" as if Aiden could have contacted them he would have.

Mr Gallagher then went to the leisure centre, where the information was being gathered.

After spending hours there he was taken to a room with police officers where he was asked about Aiden and he says he knew then it "wasn't going to be a good outcome".

He then went to a temporary mortuary where he identified Aiden.

Mr Gallagher says all he could think about on the way home was how he was "going to go through the front door".

He says in the end he didn't have to say too much, just that "Aiden won't be coming home" as they hugged.

As he finishes recounting the day of the bombing, Mr Gallagher says he wants to put on the record that the Real IRA, which carried out the attack, "declared war on an unsuspecting civilian population for their own political aims".

He says while members of the Real IRA might call themselves "freedom fighters", he considers them "freedom takers".

"The victims have ended up being the freedom fighters," he says.