A dissident republican found liable for the Omagh bombing which killed 29 people has died.
Colm Murphy, 70, is understood to have passed away peacefully from a lung condition at Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda, Co Meath earlier today.
Murphy was from Belleeks in Armagh and was active in the IRA since the 1970s.
He settled in Dundalk and was locked up three times for arms offences, including in the US when he tried to purchase a consignment of M60 machine guns to send to Ireland.
The dissident republican was the first person to be charged with the 1998 bombing carried out by the Real IRA which killed 29 and unborn twins -months after the Good Friday Agreement had been signed.
The agreement, which was passed 25 years ago, also meant the IRA would be decommissioned - a move Murphy had opposed.
He was originally nabbed over the bombing in 1999 following a joint RUC and Garda investigation.
In 2002, he was caged for 14 years for conspiring to cause the blast at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin but this was overturned in 2005 and the father-of-four was acquitted at a new trial - after interview evidence from Gardai was ruled inadmissible.
Murphy and three others were however successfully sued in a civil case after a campaign from the relatives of victims.
All four were found liable for the bombings, which took place on August 15th, 1998, even after an appeal.
They were ordered to pay £1.6m in damages to the families but no money was ever handed over.
To date, no one has been held criminally liable for the Omagh attack.
In 2021, Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt who was also found liable for the bombing died.
A note on RIP.ie said he died “surrounded by his loving family. Dearly beloved husband of Anne and cherished father of Leonora, Conán, Áine, and Colleen.”
Earlier this year the British government said it intended to set up an independent statutory inquiry into the bombing.
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