Victim's father weeps during oration

The father of 21-year-old Omagh bomb victim, Adrian Gallagher, broke down as he read an oration to his son at the funeral Mass in Knockmoyle Church.

Mr Michael Gallagher fought back tears as he spoke of the "horrible explosion on Saturday that has blasted the life out of your body, killed 27 other people also, and shattered the bodies and minds of many more".

Recalling his son's baptism in the same church, he said: "As Mammy and Daddy and Jesus placed you in the care of God on that day here 21 years ago, we are now asking God who raised His son to take you with Him through your dying and His to the fullness of life in heaven.

"We are very frightened by what has happened and we are broken-hearted that you are no longer to exist upon this earth," he added, before falling silent, unable to continue.

Adrian (also known as Aidan), a mechanic who would normally have been working in his own business last Saturday but instead went into town with a friend to buy jeans, was the only son of Mr Gallagher, who also lost a brother during the Troubles.

Mourners packed the small country church for yesterday's service and many stood outside, braving the rain that came and went throughout. They heard the chief celebrant, Father Kevin Mullan, speak of "our happy, handsome Adrian . . . this fine young son of this lovely family, their only son, the only brother of his sisters, their pride and joy, the good friend of his good friends, any future he had planned on this earth blasted instantly from him and he from us".

The Auxiliary Bishop of Derry, Dr Francis Lagan, assisted at the ceremony and said that "dreadful atrocity" committed in Omagh had affected not just the families of the dead and injured but the whole country. To leave a bomb in a busy street was a "sinful, evil act", for which those who had planned and ordered it perhaps bore a greater responsibility than those who had put it in place.

But the tragedy had also produced positive things, he added. It had inspired "so many acts of heroic kindness that it is impossible to list them", and the common experience had created in the community "a bond that can never be broken".

The funeral was also attended by the local Church of Ireland and Presbyterian ministers, the Rev Derek Quinn and the Rev J. Ian Mairs, who were applauded both inside and outside the church when they spoke of sharing the grief and the prayers of the Catholic community.

A cousin of the Gallagher family sang hymns, including Be Not Afraid and Amazing Grace, while other family members said prayers for the health services who had worked with the dead and injured, and for the recovery of Adrian's friend, who was seriously injured.

Members of St John's Ambulance who rushed to the scene on Saturday were among the attendance, as the dead man's mother, Patsy, and his sisters, Cathy and Sharon, were supported by family and friends. The attendance also included Mr Pat Doherty of Sinn Fein.

Before the body was carried to the adjoining cemetery for burial, Father Mullan prayed that Omagh would recover from the atrocity.