Prince offers his sympathy, support

There were babies in buggies in warm sunshine and security personnel to keep people at one end of Omagh's High Street. It was difficult not to see similarities with the day of the bomb, and not to look at the children and remember the empty buggies in the debris just three days earlier.

Omagh was having a royal visit from the Prince of Wales for the worst reason, with the added awful irony that the crowd was gathered where the dead and injured would have been safe.

"I've never seen Omagh such a ghost town," one young woman said. A bus driver with a plaster on his head talked as we waited about how he had been one of the "walking wounded". When he opened his eyes after being hit by shards of glass, he saw what he thought was someone's hand reaching for him. But it was a disembodied arm.

"You hear these stories and you think people are making them up," his wife said. "But they're not". Their 17-year-old daughter had been saved because there was a woman standing in front of her who had her arms blown off. The woman did not survive, they said.

"It's very nice to meet you," Prince Charles said, smiling at the outstretched hands of people at the barriers. "I'm only so sad it's on such a tragic occasion. I hope none of you are relatives of those who died."

Joy Camley stood at the barrier, with small cuts on her face where she was caught by flying glass. She told the prince she had more cuts on her chest. It would be "weeks afterwards" that the people would feel the effects of the trauma, he said.

"I'm so sorry you all had to go through this awful tragedy," he told another group. "Imagine the calculation of saying it was somewhere else," he said, shaking his head at one man.

The Northern Secretary of State, Mo Mowlam, the First Minister David Trimble and Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon followed Prince Charles on his walkabout. Asked for a comment, Mr Trimble said it was a day to talk to the people, rather than the press.

Lorraine McSteene from Kinsealy said she had come from Dublin to lay a wreath.

"We're just sickened by it. We just came down, I suppose because we associate it with our own sense of loss." She said her sister and five friends had been killed by a drunk driver.

Yesterday morning a group of union leaders laid wreaths to commemorate the dead and support emergency workers who had worked at the scene.

Joanne McCullagh, a nurse at the hospital, said the moment she would remember forever would be her promise to the parents of a nine-year-old boy that she would save their son. She would never forget seeing them sitting in a room with their arms wrapped around each other as their boy was airlifted to a Belfast hospital.

"I will never forget this. The people of Omagh will never forget this and I hope the world doesn't forget this."

Prince Charles landed at Lisanelly Army barracks shortly after 2.30 p.m. and was met by the Duke of Abercorn and dignitaries from Omagh District Council.

The Sinn Fein chairman of the council, Sean Clarke, was not part of the welcoming committee. There was neither historic handshake nor diplomatic snub to report. Instead the prince was escorted around the town by the deputy chairman UUP councillor, Alan Rainey. At the barracks there was a white pavilion tent outside the officers' mess. It had been set up as a temporary chapel of rest for grieving relatives. The families and friends of those killed had been coming to identify bodies in the makeshift mortuary just around the corner from the mess.

The prince met a group of 60 emergency personnel at the barracks, including ambulance drivers, nurses, doctors, fire men, St John ambulance people, Red Cross and RUC officers.

On his way into the officers' mess, Prince Charles said he was appalled by the bomb. "The least I can do is come here and show my sympathy and support, particularly to those who have to carry the worst of the burden in looking after people."

Asked if it reminded him of Enniskillen the prince said it did. "And back 19 years ago when Lord Mountbatten was killed. So I do have some understanding of the awful horrors that people have to put up with."

Later at the hospital he described it as a "very special visit." The "enormous support of staff made such a difference to the handling of the tragedy," he said. And it had brought out the best in people.

"I remember only too well feeling deeply angry when my great uncle Mountbatten and other relations were blown to small pieces," he said. He said he hoped "this time it will be the end of all the horrors that poor Ireland has had to suffer."

Some of the British soldiers based at the barracks had been shopping in the town the afternoon of the bomb. A group had returned to "catch the cricket on the telly," one soldier said.

When they heard the blast they ran down to help stretcher the injured away. "It was not something I'd like to see again," the soldier said, looking at the ground.

Back at the scene of the blast the visiting VIPs lined up to sign the book of condolences. "Charles," the prince signed, underlined. with the date beside it.

"It's not real is it?" one woman remarked as he walked by her.

Her friend agreed that everything since the bomb had been unreal. "It's nice to see him and it's a lovely visit," she said. "But I don't think it'll make a whole pile of difference once it's over."