No McKevitt release: victim’s father

Families of victims of the Omagh bombing have strongly criticised efforts by TDs to secure the release on humanitarian grounds of a Real IRA leader.

Michael McKevitt, 65, the only person convicted in the country of directing terrorism, has been returned recently to prison after extended temporary release following cancer surgery.

The Real IRA was behind the atrocity in Omagh in 1998, in which 29 people were killed, including a woman pregnant with twins. Five TDs — Éamon Ó Cuív, Fianna Fáil; and Independents Clare Daly, Mick Wallace, Maureen O’Sullivan and Thomas Pringle — wrote to Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald calling on her to extend McKevitt’s temporary release.