On the 15th anniversary of the bombing, in which 10 people lost their lives and countless others were injured when two IRA men detonated a bomb in Frizzell's Fish Shop, families laid flowers at the memorial garden on Belfast's Shankill Road.

But on such a difficult day, not everybody could bring themselves to be there.

Victims' campaigner, Mich-elle Williamson, said she prefers to remember the day at her home with her family.

Ms Williamson lost both her parents in the 1993 bombing, and said "it doesn't get any easier" with the passage of time.

She said she tries to remember her parents in her "own way".

"It's bad enough to remember the day, it's quite another to stand where my mother and father were murdered," she said of her decision to stay at home.

"I find it very hard. It's not about having the memorial, to me it's remembering my parents in my own way."

She said the anniversary is on her mind from September onwards, and every year it is like "reliving the couple of weeks after their deaths out again".

Ms Williamson said her parents' deaths were "a big loss for me", but said the support of other victims over the years has helped her to keep going.

"In one respect I'm glad my mum and dad went together that day," she said, "while I would love to have even one of them here, at the same time they went everywhere together so I suppose it's fitting they both died together."

But she said while she remembers her parents on this anniversary, it is also a time to remember all the victims of the Troubles.

"We are all in the same boat," she said. "We are no different from Enniskillen or La Mon. We all have the same feelings and thoughts."

Local hero Raymond Elliott – who won a bravery award for his rescue efforts in the aftermath of the bombing – also said it had been a difficult week for him.

He too avoided going to the memorial, finding his memories too difficult to cope with returning to the scene.

He said he has been having frequent flashbacks and has had difficulty sleeping in the week running up to the anniversary.

Mr Elliott was among those who entered the fish shop after the bomb, attempting to rescue those inside, and instead finding himself "shovelling parts of bodies into body-bags".

Something which still haunts him to this day.

"After all those years, there's not a day goes past when I don't get a flash-back," he said. "It's a hard thing to live with."