Republicans challenged to testify in Omagh retrial
Evidence that allegedly links Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly to the 1998 Real IRA attack demands an explanation, a lawyer for the bereaved families told Belfast High Court as the men’s civil retrial began.
Murphy, a builder and publican from Dundalk, Co Louth, and Daly, a bricklayer from Cullaville, Co Monaghan, were ordered to face new proceedings after they successfully appealed against a landmark ruling which had found them and two other men liable for the atrocity.
Twenty-nine people, including a woman pregnant with twins, died when the dissident republican car bomb ripped through the Co Tyrone market town on Aug 15, 1998. More than 200 people were injured in the blast.
Lord Brennan, representing the Omagh families pursuing the civil action, noted that neither man had given evidence during the first trial, or had even turned up for any of the hearings. Neither was present on the first day of their retrial in front of Justice John Gillen.
The barrister said if they took the same approach to this case, it would indicate they were treating the court with “indifference”.
Lord Brennan said both men were funded through legal aid and were ably represented by solicitors and lawyers.
“They have every opportunity to play their part in these proceedings as individuals, not simply through their lawyers,” he said.
Referring to legal guidelines on when a negative inference could be drawn if a defendant did not take the stand, he added: “If a case is raised — answer it. If you don’t, the inference may be drawn against you — it’s just common sense.”
No one has been successfully criminally convicted of the bombing, but, in 2009, Murphy, Daly and two others were held responsible in a landmark civil action taken by some of the families.
With Real IRA chief Michael McKevitt and Co Louth republican Liam Campbell, the men were ordered to pay £1.6m in damages.
McKevitt, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in the Republic for directing terrorism, and Campbell, who is fighting extradition to Lithuania on arms smuggling charges, failed in their bids to overturn the Omagh civil judgment. They are now seeking to have their case heard in the European Court for Human Rights.
Murphy and Daly’s appeals were upheld but both men were ordered to face another trial.
