The mother of a toddler killed in the Omagh bomb has been remembered as “dignified and gracious”.
Tracey Devine, whose 20-month-old daughter Breda was among the youngest victims of the Real IRA atrocity, died before seeing any of those responsible for the 1998 attack brought to justice.
Mrs Devine’s death on Saturday came just days after her brother Garry McGillion gave a moving testimony to the Omagh bomb inquiry about the events that have haunted him “every day for the past 26 years”.
His sister’s Requiem Mass is due to take place on Tuesday at St Mary’s Church, Aughabrack, with interment in the adjoining cemetery.
Mrs Devine is survived by husband Paul and Breda’s siblings Aaron (Aine), Niamh, Shay, Manus and Nuala.
Omagh bomb campaigner Michael Gallagher, whose 21-year-old son Aiden was killed in the attack, remembered Mrs Devine and her husband as “two beautiful people”.
“My hearts goes out to the entire extended family,” he said.
“I remember both Tracey and Paul from the early days of the campaign. They were quiet, polite people. Tracey was especially dignified and gracious.
“Nobody should have to suffer what those parents went through.”
Kevin Skelton, whose wife Philomena was among the bomb’s 29 victims, said he never heard Mrs Devine voice anger towards those who murdered her daughter.
“She was a credit to her family and someone who carried her immense grief with dignity,” he said.
On Wednesday of last week, Mr McGallion told the inquiry into the Real IRA attack how n the day of the attack he was in Omagh with his sister, his infant niece and his then fiancé Donna-Marie Keys preparing for their forthcoming wedding.
The shopping trip had been arranged to buy his goddaughter Breda shoes for the wedding, where she was to be a flower girl.
He told the public inquiry how he had handed Breda over to a policeman: “I felt her heartbeat on my chest. To this day, I still feel it.”
When he found out she had died, he said, it was “something that ripped my heart out”.
Mr McGillion, who was 24 at the time, said the “horrendous” scenes he witnessed that day “will be forever ingrained in my brain”.
“They have haunted me every day for the past 26 years,” he said.
