Monaghan man due in court on Omagh bomb charges

A high-profile republican from Monaghan, charged with murdering 29 people in the Omagh bombing of 1998 is to appear before court in Dungannon later today.

Seamus Daly (43) from Cullaville, Monaghan was found liable for the August 1998 Real IRA bombing in the Tyrone town following the outcome of a landmark civil case.

Mr Daly was arrested by officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's Serious Crime Branch in the Newry area on Monday and subsequently charged with 29 counts of murder, two charges linked to the explosion in Omagh and two counts linked to an attempted explosion in Lisburn in April 1998.

Twenty-nine people, one, a woman pregnant with twins, died when the dissident republican car bomb detonated in Omagh town centre on a busy Saturday afternoon.

It is considered the single bloodiest terrorist attack in the history of the Troubles and came only a couple of months after the signing of the historic Good Friday peace accord.

A statement from the PSNI said: “Detectives from the Serious Crime Branch investigating the 1998 Omagh bombing have charged a 43-year-old man with the murders of the 29 people who died in the explosion and a number of other offences”.

Nobody to date has been successfully convicted of the bombing in a criminal court.