A total of 27 people have been identified as “key individuals” by investigations into the 1998 Omagh bomb, the inquiry into the atrocity has heard.
On Wednesday, inquiry analyst Mark Safranauskas delivered a presentation which used available data, including information from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), An Garda Síochána and the British army, to name the figures and the links between them.
A total of 14 of the individuals identified have convictions for terrorist offences either before or after the attack on Omagh, and some were members of the Real IRA.
They include Michael McKevitt, Colm Murphy, Seamus Daly and Liam Campbell – who were found liable in a civil case for the Omagh bombing – and Seamus McKenna, who was found not liable in that same court case but who, according to the inquiry’s working hypothesis, “played a key role”.
RM Block
McKevitt, Murphy and McKenna have since died.
A total of 31 people, including unborn twins, died, and hundreds were injured when a car bomb planted by the dissident republican group, the Real IRA, exploded in the centre of Omagh on August 15th, 1998.
The independent public inquiry into the atrocity, which resumed in Belfast this week under Lord Turnbull, is examining whether the bombing could reasonably have been prevented by British state authorities.
Its “working hypothesis ... is that, at an organisational level, both the Real IRA and Continuity IRA planned and carried out the Omagh bombing”.
Nick de la Poer, counsel to the inquiry, said at the outset of Wednesday’s hearing that “the fact that a person has been identified as a key individual in the inquiry legal team’s working hypothesis does not necessarily mean that they may be a suspect”.
“In fact, we will see individuals whose identity and links it’s important to understand, but in relation to whom it has never been suggested historically they were involved in any terrorist activity,” he said.
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On Wednesday morning, the inquiry watched a presentation by the inquiry analyst, which identified the 27 “key individuals” and the connections between them.
These included the Emerald Bar in Dundalk, owned by Murphy – the “spider at the centre of the web of the plan to detonate a bomb in Omagh” – where the inquiry was told a number of those individuals socialised.
Businesses owned by Murphy and McKenna, and which employed some of those “key individuals” were also cited, as was the Coes Road area of Dundalk.
Among the “key individuals” named to the inquiry were Seamus McGrane, now deceased, who the counsel to the inquiry said was convicted in 2017 of directing the Real IRA.
Liam Campbell’s brothers, Peter and Michael, were also identified. The inquiry heard Michael Campbell was convicted in Lithuania in 2014 “of attempting to buy and smuggle weapons for the Real IRA”, and Peter Campbell was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 1983 for explosive offences.
Derek “Shanty” Brady was identified, who the inquiry heard pleaded guilty in 2004 to possessing, in March 1998, a “massive” 1240lb bomb with intent to endanger life, as was Patrick “Mooch” Blair, who was found guilty of the possession of ammunition in 2003.
In 2020 he pleaded guilty to belonging to Continuity IRA and “providing weapons and explosives training, possession” and other charges, relating to dates in 2014.
The inquiry was told of Murphy’s nephew, electrician Sean Hoey; de la Poer said: “Like his uncle, Sean Hoey has very, very many connections to a significant number of people, places and organisations.”
In 2007, Hoey was found not guilty on 29 counts of murder and multiple other charges in relation to the Omagh bomb after a judge said the prosecution evidence did not meet the required standard.
Another “key individual” was Joseph “Joe” Fee, who the inquiry heard was found guilty in 2003 of the possession of explosive substances and sentenced to 10 years in prison, as was Damien Lawless, who, according to information provided to the inquiry by An Garda Síochána, was involved in 1999 “with an underground training camp” and had connections to the Real IRA, counsel to the inquiry said.
According to the inquiry’s “working hypothesis”, it is “suggested” that another “key individual”, Anthony Donegan, who lived near Coes Road, stole the car in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, which would be used to transport the bomb.
He was charged with supplying the car, but the case against him was dropped in 2005.
The inquiry is due to resume on Thursday, when it will hear evidence from a senior Garda detective on the theft of the so-called “bomb car” in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan.
