A couple seriously injured in the Omagh bombing in which 29 people and two unborn children were killed in August 1998 were married yesterday in the town's Trinity Presbyterian Church. The flower girl at their wedding was their daughter, Chloe aged 4½, who was born just five days after the atrocity.
Almost 100 guests attended the St Valentine's Day wedding of Michael Mulholland and Nicola Emery, both of whom said their relationship and love for each other was strengthened by the tragedy they shared.
Mr Mulholland and Ms Emery were frantically searching for each other as police officers were evacuating Omagh's Market Street during the bomb alert and they found each other just as the massive car bomb exploded.
Ms Emery suffered serious shrapnel and glass injuries and Mr Mulholland sustained internal injuries and wounds to his back. Both were rushed to the South Tyrone Hospital where, after treatment, they were told that their baby's heartbeat was strong.
"Today is a great day for us all and we're looking forward into the future and not back into the past, to having the rest of our lives together," said Mr Mulholland.
The Rev Robert Herron, minister of Trinity Presbyterian Church, said it was one of the most emotional weddings he had ever officiated at.
"Given what this couple, Nicola and Michael, have come through, it was indeed an emotional day for everyone. Chloe has been the focus of their lives for almost the last five years and they all deserve as much happiness as possible", he said. When their baby was born five days after the explosion, they named her Chloe Hope Valerie.