The father of one of the victims of the Omagh bomb has spoken of the similarities between the 1998 terrorist attack and Tuesday's attacks on America.
Mr Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was one of the 31, including two unborn children, who died in Omagh, said the attacks on America had brought the events of three years ago back to everyone involved in Omagh.
Mr Gallagher said although the Omagh bombing "doesn't compare in scale with what we saw on Tuesday, it's extremely painful to witness". Considering, he said, the relative populations of the North and the US and the fatalities caused by the two attacks, "if you break it down statistically it is very much similar".
Mr Gallagher spoke of the agony of waiting for news of loved ones. "You are going to have people hoping. There's one half of your brain telling you this is not going to turn out the way you want it to, but the other half is still having hope that there will be some kind of miracle and that they are unconscious in a hospital and can't communicate.
"Looking at the way things are now in New York, it's probably going to be weeks before the last of the people are identified, and that's a very painful wait for those at home, because they don't know whether they should be grieving or hoping."
Mr Gallagher said he had no doubt that when those behind Tuesday's attacks were tracked down, "America will not operate on the same system we do, with one hand tied behind their back".
He said a hardening of attitudes was natural: "When people are hurt they want to hurt the people that hurt them." He warned, however, against over-reaction.
He said that though the Omagh bombers had yet to be caught, he believed in the justice system: "I think at the end of the day it's important that we do bring the individuals to justice that were responsible for it. I think that's a better system, because it shows those other people that were behind them that there is not much to look up to. "If you do this thing you will be brought to justice for it. That's the democratic system. If we go into the system of mass bombing, what you are doing is virtually lowering your standards to theirs."