A successful businessman who was murdered in the Omagh bomb doted over the only granddaughter he got to meet, the inquiry into the atrocity has heard.
Sean McGrath (61) died three weeks after the explosion on August 15, 1998, succumbing to shrapnel injuries.
Statements from his daughter Noeleen and sons Conor and Gavin were read to the inquiry on Thursday.
Conor, whose daughter Sara was born in 1996, recalled how her birth had reinvigorated his dad.
The inquiry was shown footage of Sean playing with Sara during her second birthday. She giggled as her grandad lifted her among the balloons on the ceiling and put wrapping paper on his head.
“We couldn’t believe how it affected our parents. Sean in particular seemed to get a new lease of life,” he said.
“We lived in Belfast at the time and moved to the outskirts of Bangor when Sara was just two months old.
“We tried to get to Omagh a few times a month to keep all the grandparents happy, but Sean would also find any excuse to see as much as he could of Sara.
“He would even call at the childminders when we were at work, even though he might be in Lisburn for a meeting, and take a trip out to Bangor for just 15 minutes with his granddaughter.”
Conor said his father was a “natural salesman” who travelled all over Ireland in the 1970s.
“He stayed in many of the best-known hotels and made a lot of contacts,” he said.
“I remember one year he did a deal with a hotel in Westport to be their agent in the North. He took some ads in the Belfast Telegraph and managed his bookings quota very quickly.
“His bonus was a family holiday to the hotel which was an adventure at that time. He loved making deals, but his days visiting bakeries as a salesman sparked an ambition to start his own business in the town.”
The inquiry heard how Sean had opened a number of retail outlets in Omagh, even making a deal with London store Harrods to stock Irish bread in the early 1980s.
On the day of the bomb, Conor had been in Bangor shopping when he heard the news. Sean was brought to the Royal Victoria Hospital, where the family kept a bedside vigil.
“The first doctor said he was stable and had chest and leg injuries, shrapnel wounds, but he was confident he would survive,” Conor recalled.
“We saw Sean briefly as he was being moved into the main part of the hospital; a hand squeeze being the only real contact.
“Unfortunately, this was just the start of a traumatic three weeks of hope being constantly shattered as various tests threw up new complications. We spent day and night there, taking it in shifts.
“My brother Gavin and his wife Emma were expecting their first child that week, so he had an awful experience on what should have been a joyful week.
“His daughter Polly was born on August 18. Sean never got to meet her, or her sister Hattie, or Emma.
“They would never get to know their grandfather. I know Sean had been planning to go to London that week. He had been to the bank for English notes, which he’d given to my mother back in the hospital in Omagh.”
A statement from Noeleen painted a picture of a man who was “considerate, gentle and kind to a fault”.
“Slow to anger, the only real thing that made him cross was injustice in any form,” she said.
“One example being when I was in lower sixth, I questioned the teaching being purported by a visiting retreat priest.
“Hauled up in front of the headmistress, a nun, my dad was summoned to hear how his daughter dared question doctrine.
“He was a devout Catholic, but assured the headmistress that questioning was the only way anyone can learn and he was proud to support my inquiring mind.
“If my dad had a superpower, he would have been the protector. He protected my mother from difficult situations, my siblings and I from anything not happy and joyful.
“He would have been horrified to know we spent three weeks in horrible limbo at the hospital wondering if he would pull through despite his horrific injuries.
“When my dad died, although it was a sort of relief, the light definitely went out for a long time. However, remembering the best of him has rekindled the light.”
A further statement from Gavin said his dad was “kind and would always try to help where he could”.
“My father deserved to live his life to the full and for it to end naturally. I love my dad and I miss him every day,” he added.