Hoodies, backpacks, vaccinations, homework, cartoons, a walk in the local park and a girl who liked a boy. The mundane details of ordinary teenage lives were laid bare in the Central Criminal Court, making what happened on a sunny May evening in Lucan all the more shocking.
For the first time in Ireland, two children were on trial for the murder of another child. And, unlike most other cases I've covered, the young accused in this case, were not children from dysfunctional families, they were not neglected by parents battling addiction, they did not have any obvious mental health problems.
Families of the bereaved are encouraged and expected to remain calm during such trials - not to shout out or do anything that would be seen as trying to influence a jury. This meant that, unusually in a murder trial, they were among the very first witnesses. As a result, Ana came vividly into focus from the very beginning of the case, in a way that doesn't often happen.
The trial ended after seven weeks, with what seemed inevitable guilty verdicts but little resolution.