McKevitt verdict - Some solace for victims of atrocity

THE guilty verdict handed down yesterday by three judges of the Special Criminal Court in the Michael McKevitt trial will inevitably be viewed in the context of the Omagh bombing.

While the conviction bears no direct relation with the Omagh atrocity, the fact that he was found guilty of directing terrorism and being a member of an illegal organisation the Real IRA which carried out the bombing, will bring a measure of solace to people whose loved ones were killed or injured.

But while their load may be lightened, their anger towards McKevitt and the Real IRA will continue to smoulder. Their sense of outrage was encapsulated in the terse words of Lawrence Rush, whose wife, Libby, was killed in the explosion, and who told McKevitt: "You make your bed and you lie in it."