Walking into Erne Hospital Casualty department to find friends and acquaintances on trolleys was the task that was to face Gladys Edmundson, who was a nursing Sister.

She had been on the way to church that Sunday morning when she was told by a steward that there had been a bomb at the Cenotaph.

"The message had been that anybody who worked in the hospital was to report to the hospital. A pharmacist and his wife who was a staff nurse and myself just headed off. On arrival I reported to the major incident room. I was handed a clipboard to go to casualty to get the names of the patients.

"I remember those brown doors in casualty and walking through them. I saw Ronnie Hill, who was conscious. I said that's Ronnie Hill, he is Mark's principal at the High School. In the next trolley was Jim Dixon. I would not have recognised Jim.

"I saw Daphne Stephenson and Catherine and Stephen Ross and Nathan and David Chambers. I saw Gordon Wilson in a chair and he asked had I seen Marie. Stephen's mother came to me and asked had I seen Sammy [Gault]." After she had seen these people, the shock of the situation hit her. "I went up the corridor back to the incident room. It suddenly hit me. I was cold and shocked. I was bitter. I said to the late Norman Hilliard -- everyone you know is in that bomb. A young policeman put a hand on my shoulder. He said 'You carry on, You are doing great work'".

She said the professionalism of the staff came to the fore that day.

The hospital was not forgotten, with high profile visitors and telegrams of support from all over. The children in the children's ward received presents which kept their spirits up.

The major incident plan had been successful and was shared with others, influencing the medical response years later at the time of the Omagh bombing.