Mr McGrory suffered a number of injuries, including a ruptured spleen, internal bleeding, burns to his face as well as a large volume of shrapnel in his leg and above his eyes.

Following the bombing, he spent a number of weeks in Omagh Hospital before being transferred to Altnagelvin Hospital in Londonderry.

Over the last 26 years, he has been in and out of hospital for treatment for injuries he sustained.

On the day of the bombing, Mr McGrory says he was wearing a Liverpool football top.

When asked by doctors in Omagh Hospital if they could cut the top, he said no because he loved that top.

Mr McGrory is remembering being carried to safety by a policeman.

"There was a holy medal placed into my hand but I don't know where it came from.

"I was still holding it and they were trying to take it out of my hand and they couldn't get my hand released to let go of it."

Mr McGrory says that the boys were all together at the time of the explosion.

In a bid to comfort the families, he is asked after the bomb went off and he came to if he remembered anything and he said no.

It is put to him by the inquiry's lawyer that because Shaun and Oran did not come to, they would not have known what happened either and Mr McGrory agrees.

Shortly after visiting the shops, Mr McGrory says they were asked to move across the street by a police officer.

The boys were cooperating, but were "messing around" as young boys do and not paying attention.

They were moved up to beside the car which carried the bomb.

He says the only way he could describe the explosion was: "I felt like I was dead without knowing I was dead."

He adds he did not remember the sounds, but that it had "went from beautiful sunny day to the darkest day ever".

Mr McGrory says that they had been given money and that Shaun McLaughlin "wanted to go buy something for his mammy".

He said he bought some sweets and Oran bought a full cooked chicken to eat.

"He started eating it while we were standing in the street," Mr McGrory says, smiling as he recalls that image.

"It's the last thing he ate."

Image source, Omagh Bombing Inquiry

After a short break, the inquiry is now hearing from Ronan McGrory.

Mr McGrory was friends with both Shaun McLaughlin and Oran Doherty. He was 14 at the time and had travelled on the Buncrana school trip.

They were with a group of Spanish students who had been attending a summer programme in the Donegal town.

He says he felt as though he had been "entrusted" with looking after the younger boys.

They were all excited, and the trip to the Ulster American Folk Park was good fun, he says.

"We'd rarely get away so the chance to get out of the town for the day was big," he adds.

He remembers that on the day of the bomb, it was a nice day and the sun was shining.

Image source, Family Handouts

Photographs of Oran were shown to the inquiry.

Lord Turnbull, who was clearly emotional himself, says that Oran's mother is right to ask the question that if the people responsible for the bombing could sleep in their beds at night.

"It's a question that many who have listened to the evidence to this inquiry in the last week will have asked themselves."

He hopes that those responsible will hear of "the accounts of misery and grief that they have imposed on so many".

Image source, Family Handouts

At the end of her statement, Ms Doherty says that the perpetrators will "never be forgiven for what they have done".

She also addressed her son, Oran.

"I look forward to the day when I will see you again, but for now mammy will continue to do her best to look after your brothers and sisters, and all your wee nieces and nephews who I know would love their uncle so much."

Image source, Family handout

Ms Doherty says the family has kept a jar of Oran's sweets from 1998, but that they had not received any other articles of clothing or his watch.

She says that the family will never forgive the bombers.

“I have listened to and read all the excuses about the fact they didn’t mean to get the bomb to go off at the time and in the place, and they didn’t expect anyone to be in the area at the time.

“I do not accept this and I never will.

“If you are prepared to transport a bomb of that magnitude into a crowded market town, then you know exactly what could happen.

“It was a despicable act inflicted upon people of all ages and from both sides of the political divide and all in the name of what?”

On Monday night, the families as well as "most of Buncrana" travelled to Omagh to take the bodies of Oran, Shaun McLaughlin and James Barker home, Ms Doherty says.

All three had been on a day trip with a group of Spanish students who had been attending a summer programme in the Donegal town.

"It was terrible, the sight of those three coffins side by side," said Oran's mum.

She adds that some of her daughters were "screaming and wailing".

People had lined the route back to Buncrana, standing on the streets with candles as the hearses drove past.

She says back home, the streets were thick with people paying their respects.

On Sunday night, alongside family members, Ms Doherty said she was brought to the makeshift morgue in Omagh.

"I remember going up to the morgue and it was just so cold in there," she says.

She adds that she was brought to see Oran's body: "It was just something I'll never forget."

She says he was badly marked with bruises and burns, and that his hair was wet.

"I don't know how I left him that night to come home," she says.

"It still haunts me that I didn't stay."

The next morning, Ms Doherty says she saw people in Shaun McLaughlin's home hugging.

"I said to my sister, you know there's something going on. They've got news of some sort."

Her sister then went to the house and came back to say Shaun was dead.

Shortly after, Ms Doherty's husband rang to ask if she had heard the news.

"I said that I heard about Shaun, and it was then that he told me Oran was dead too.

"I just threw the phone. It was your worst nightmare come true."

Ms Doherty says after the phone call, she couldn't imagine going back to her own house because she didn't think she could deal with Oran's things without him.

She says her husband came back at about 10am on Sunday morning and the rest of the day was "a haze".

A policewoman then rang Ms Doherty and asked to speak to her alone, for procedural reasons.

She remembers thinking that she was going to be told that Oran was dead, but instead was told that two small boys were missing and that he was one of them.

She was "hysterical" but contacted her husband who was at Omagh Leisure Centre.

"He was saying, 'Don't worry, I'll find our wee man. I'll bring him home'.

"But as the night went on there was still no word and were starting to fear the worst."

Ms Doherty says later on Saturday evening, they received a message to say the children were on their way home.

However, this was "not correct".

After hearing that another young boy had been taken to hospital in Enniskillen to get shrapnel removed, Ms Doherty says this panicked her, but she did not think the very worst.

The bus then arrived back in Buncrana, but only 16 Spanish students were on board.

Ms Doherty says her husband, alongside parents of other children, left to go to Omagh while she waited by the phone.

Oran's mum says the last thing she remembers telling him was to "watch out" in case he was separated from the group or had lost his money.

"I just had a fear of letting him go," she adds.

Ms Doherty adds that it wasn't until later in the afternoon that Oran's cousins had been checking football scores on Teletext when they saw the news about Omagh.

One of the girls on the trip had rang home about the bomb and was "hysterical".

Ms Doherty says she assumed from this that the police had kept the children in a safe place, but later heard that two of the Spanish students had been hurt in the attack.

"We knew then that it was serious."

Image source, Family handout

Oran had been in Omagh on a student trip, part of an exchange with Spanish students.

"He was eight years old, full of life and full of fun," his mum says.

"Just a great funny wee boy and a great character."

He had been asked to go on the trip to the Ulster American Folk Park by his cousin, and he wanted to go, as his other siblings had done in previous years.

"The children always enjoyed those trips but Oran was only eight and I wasn’t really happy to let him go, however I continued to tell him I would think about it," she says.

"In the end I told him he could go. On the Friday night he came in and said ‘you had better shake me hard in the morning – he was always hard to waken in the morning."

This afternoon’s session begins with a photo of Oran Doherty being shown to the inquiry, before his sister Lisa Dillon reads a statement on behalf of their mum Bernie.

The Doherty family, she says, were so happy in April 1998 when the Good Friday agreement had been signed.

Oran had asked his mum what that agreement meant.

“I told him it meant there would be no more shootings or bombings in the north. Four months later, Oran who was only eight, was blown up in the Omagh bomb,” she says.

Oran’s mum described the schoolboy as “happy go lucky and fun loving”, the fifth of seven children who loved football and fishing with his dad, brother and friends.

He had dreams of playing for Celtic, or being a shopkeeper, his mum says.

Image source, Omagh Bombing Inquiry

Image source, Family picture

Monday’s afternoon session has started. If you want to watch it, go the top of this page and hit "Watch live".

It will commemorate Oran Doherty who, like Shaun McLaughlin, was a pupil of Buncrana Primary School.

The eight-year-old had been looking forward to the trip to Omagh with Spanish exchange students, and his sister gave him sweets for the journey because he was a bad traveller.

Oran was a keen Celtic fan and was buried wearing the club jersey.

The inquiry is hearing from Oran's sister, Lisa Dillon, who is reading a statement on behalf of their mother Bernie.

Last week Paul Greaney KC, who is counsel to the inquiry, said Oran was "full of life" and had been invited on the trip to Omagh by his cousin.

His mother Bernie was "apprehensive because of his age", he added.

Image source, PA Media

While we are waiting for the inquiry to resume, here's some info about its inquiry chairman.

Senior Scottish judge Lord Turnbull was appointed in June 2023 by the then Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris, months after the UK government announced the independent statutory inquiry.

Lord Turnbull was first appointed as a judge in 2006.

He was one of two senior Crown counsel in the Lockerbie Bombing case, which took place at the Scottish Court in the Netherlands.

Here is a timeline, showing how events unfolded on 15 August 1998.

The Real IRA later claimed responsibility for the attack, in which 29 people were killed and more than 200 were injured.