A dad told how his family's "future changed forever" the day his son was killed in the Warrington bombing.
Hundreds of people lined the streets of Warrington town centre today to remember the lives of 12-year-old Tim Parry and three-year-old Johnathan Ball, who were killed in the IRA bombing on March 20, 1993.
Both boys had been out shopping for Mother's Day cards with their families when they were caught up in the atrocity 30 years ago. The explosion came less than half an hour after a coded message was sent to the Samaritans warning them that a bomb would go off in Liverpool city centre, 19 miles away from Warrington.
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Merseyside police investigated and also warned officers in Warrington. At 12.12pm two bombs exploded in the centre of Warrington, one outside Boots on Bridge Street, the other outside Argos. Johnathan Ball, three, was killed at the scene, while Tim Parry, 12, died five days later in hospital.
Among the crowds of people who turned out to pay their respects today was 76-year-old Anne Barnes from Warrington, who was in the town centre on the day of the bombing 30 years ago. Anne said: "I was in a shop and I heard screaming and commotion and within five minutes I got told what it was.
"I kept away from town for a long time because of fear. It's 30 years and we wanted to pay our respects.
"It seems like it was five minutes ago. It never leaves you when you come to town. I had to come out this morning no matter what. I come every year and lay flowers."
Pupils from Great Sankey High School opened the commemoration event on Bridge Street with a rendition of You Raise Me Up. Colin Parry paid tribute to his son Tim, whose "ultimate dream" was to play for Everton before his life was cruelly cut short.
Colin said: "Tim was our second child, arriving just 11 months after Dominic and 13 months before Abbie who miraculously arrived on Dom's third birthday.
"For 12 years that followed Abbie's arrival, we were a family of five until this day 30 years ago when the IRA made us a family of four. There is no easy way to describe or ever know how the loss of a child will impact a family until it happens to you.
"But I can tell you that our reality and our future changed forever that day. The overwhelming grief of losing Tim could so easily have shattered our family and destroyed any chance of a normal life."
However, since the bombing, Colin and his wife Wendy have dedicated their lives to supporting those affected by the Northern Ireland conflict and other terror attacks, including the Manchester Arena bombing.
In 1995, they set up the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation to help with their efforts to find and promote peace and non-violent conflict resolution. They were so successful that Wendy proposed building a Peace Centre both as a memorial to the boys, and to provide an East-West dimension to the peace process in Ireland.
Colin added: "The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation is now 28 years old and is the only victim founded peace charity in Britain. It's contributed greatly to preventing the spread of extremism, particularly among young people and between people of different ethnic of faith backgrounds and it will continue to do so.
"Wendy and I will do all we can to ensure the long term survival of the Peace Centre and the Peace Foundation just as we have for our family. But nothing will ever diminish the loss of a life cut short, of a life of great promise, of a life of great fun and friendship.
"And if I may end on a slightly lighter note, of a life that could have fulfilled Tim's ultimate dream of playing for his beloved Everton Football Club and how they have benefitted now from his eternal optimism these past years."
A series of touching tributes were also read out by Tim Parry's friend Gareth Boldsworth and Chola Dakin on behalf of Johnathan Ball's family. Harriet Vickers, the daughter of Bronwen Vickers, who lost her leg in the bombing and died a year later, also paid tribute to her mum during the service.
Sir John Major, who was the Prime Minister at the time of the bombing, attended the commemoration where he recalled receiving the news 30 years ago. He said: "I have never forgotten the moment I got the call from 10 Downing Street telling me what had happened. I was spending the afternoon in my garden that weekend.
"It was a sunny, spring day and children were in shopping centres in every part of the country buying cards and flowers for Mothering Sunday.
"When Tim and Johnathan's mothers waved their sons off on the morning of the 20th March 1993, they couldn't possibily have known that what they were seeing was the last wave they would ever have in return.
"What they suffered is beyond the nightmare of any parent. The two bombs here in Warrington brought me the closest I ever came to giving up on the search for peace in Ireland.
"The peace process was generally at risk that weekend but I reflected and I felt that if the IRA could continue to plant random bombs in random towns, randomly killing children and other innocent men and women, whilst we were at that very same moment trying to find a way through to peace then there really was little hope.
"But I couldn't give up and I couldn't for this reason and I feared that if we did there would be even more bombs, even more children and even more grieving families. There is always hope as time subsequently has proved."
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