Omagh case 'uncharted waters'
Sunday May 11 2008
MORE than 40 gardai have been summoned to appear in the Four Courts to give evidence in the civil action mounted by the relatives of some of the victims of the Omagh bombing.
The unprecedented transferring of High Court proceedings from Belfast to Dublin this week is taking the case into "uncharted waters" according to Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the 1998 attack by the Real IRA.
"We don't know what the gardai will say when they are called to give evidence so we're entering into uncharted waters", the Omagh Support group's spokesman said.
"We could hear huge details about the five men we are suing and their involvements in previous Real IRA attacks and the Omagh attack or we could be very disappointed," the Omagh man said.
For the next fortnight, Mr Justice Morgan will call gardai officers to the Four Courts, where he will preside over proceedings which relatives feared might never take place.
Four days have been set aside for garda officers to give evidence this week with at least three days set aside for proceedings next week.
"Right up until the case got going in Belfast in April we didn't know if we would be able to call these garda witnesses, and we're still not sure what they can or will say. Some may still be tied up in criminal cases that touch on the Real IRA and might not be able to say some things about the defendants or they may have been told by their superiors in the garda not to divulge details about certain matters, we just don't know," Mr Gallagher added.
Writs were issued against the five defendants; Michael McKevitt, Seamus Daly, Seamus McKenna, Liam Campbell and Colm Murphy in July 2002 in an unprecedented effort to sue the alleged instigators of a terrorist attack.
The Omagh bombing claimed 29 lives and the lives of unborn twins but so far no one has been convicted in the criminal courts in Northern Ireland in relation to the atrocity. One defendant, Colm Murphy, was convicted in Dublin in 2002 and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment for conspiracy to cause the Omagh explosion but the conviction was overturned and he is awaiting retrial.
Seamus Daly has been convicted of being a member of the Real IRA, Seamus McKenna was convicted in 2004 of the unlawful possession of explosives and Liam Campbell was sentenced to five years in prison on terrorist charges. Michael McKevitt, the alleged leader of the Real IRA, was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in 2003 for directing terrorism.
Michael Gallagher said the families who had brought the proceedings were determined to bring the bombers to justice.
"As far as the families are concerned this is an atrocity that won't be forgotten and those responsible won't be allowed to get away with it", he said yesterday.
- Alan Murray
