IRA man jailed for three and a half years

A Monaghan man who is being sued by relatives of the victims of the Omagh bombing was jailed for three and a half years at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today for membership of an illegal organisation, namely the Real IRA.

Seamus Daly (aged 33), of Kilmurray, Culloville, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, had pleaded guilty to membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on November 20, 2000.

Mr Daly is one of the five men being sued in civil actions by relatives of the 29 people killed in the Real IRA bomb in Omagh in August 1998.

At the sentencing hearing in the Special Criminal Court today, Detective Sergeant Tadhg Foley, Monaghan, told Mr George Birmingham SC, prosecuting, that Mr Daly was a member of the organisation that carried out the Omagh bombing in which 29 people were killed.

Mr Daly was intitally charged with membership between two dates but this was later amended to one specific date, that of November 20, 2000, to which he pleaded guilty last Thursdsay.

Questioned by Mr Birmingham, Det Foley agreed that the Real IRA, which came into existence in 1997, was responsible for firarms and explosive offences in this State, Northern Ireland and Britain.

Counsel put it to the witness that on one occasion this resulted in a tragic loss of life. "Yes," Det Foley replied. “29 people killed in Omagh”.

The court heard that Seamus Daly, a single man, is one of a family of nine and lives with his parents in Culloville, Castleblayney. He is currently unemployed but has previously worked in the building industry. He has no previous convictions.

Defence counsel Mr Hugh Hartnett SC asked the court to take into account the fact that the accused pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity after the charge was proferred against him, and his previous clean record.

Jailing Daly for three and a half years, to run from date of sentence, Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, noted that the maximum term for the offence of membership was seven years.

However, he said that in this case, as in many others, the court has “no information of the level of involvement of the accused”.

Mr Justice Butler said, taking into account his guilty plea and the fact that he had no previous convictions, there is no question but that “the maximum tarriff would not arise”.

Seamus Daly is one of five men served with a civil writ by the families of the Omagh victims.

Michael McKevitt, from Blacrock, Dundalk, who is serving 20 years for directing the Real IRA is also being sued.

Colm Murphy, jailed for 14 years for conspiring to carrying out an explosion within the State, and Liam Campbell, from Upper Faughart, Dundalk, who is currently awaiting trial on two charges of membership, have also been served with civil writs.