Man arrested in connection with Omagh bombing

A man has been arrested by Garda in Dundalk in connection with the 1998 Omagh bomb atrocity.

The 34-year-old man, believed to be from the Dundalk area of Co Louth, was arrested in Newry in the early hours of Monday, and is being held in connection with “serious terrorist offences”.

Last month, relatives of those who died in the bombing expressed “total shock” after the only man jailed over the 1998 atrocity succeeded in an appeal against his conviction.

At Dublin's Court of Criminal Appeal, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns granted a retrial of the case of Colm Murphy, 51, who was jailed for 14 years in 2002 for conspiring to cause the explosion.

Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden died in the bombing, said: "It seems to me now that's the number of deaths the people in this country are willing to accept - 31 innocent people including two unborn children, and not one person being held to account for that."

Twenty-nine men, women and children died and hundreds were injured in the car bomb attack in the Co Tyrone town on 15 August 1998.

The bombing, which was later claimed by dissident republican paramilitary group the Real IRA, was the worst single atrocity in the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’.

(MB/SP)