Omagh Bomb Should Produce No More Victims

Cáit Trainor asks questions of the prosecution case against Seamus Daly who stands accused of having carried out the Omagh bombing in August 1998 in which numerous people lost their lives. Cáit Trainor is a republican activist and for a long time served as Vice President of Republican Sinn Fein.

The Omagh bomb stands out in the last 20 years of Irish history as a tragedy, a tragedy not matched by anything since and let us hope this remains the case. To many the words alone “Omagh Bomb” are enough to conjure up disturbing images, such was the level of devastation it left in its wake, to question the events surrounding, to look further into the official version of events presented by the media and British Government is akin to Holocaust denial.


As an Irish republican I am naturally suspicious of the British Governments version of events of anything that happens in Ireland but even I must admit that other than an odd fly away comment of doubt, I never looked further into it or investigated.

Last year I remember reading how Seamus Daly had been arrested, the news that he had been arrested while taking his pregnant wife to hospital to give birth was met in republican circles with outrage and ridicule, social media was awash with condemnation. Days later Seamus was charged and remanded to Jail, then in Republican circles with a few noble exceptions – silence.

A number for weeks ago after Seamus had appeared in court to be further remanded I spoke with his wife Aine, slowly throughout the course of our conversations details emerged that would leave anyone scratching their head as to how a court could keep remanding him.

Since 1999 Seamus’ name has been bandied around the media in connection with Omagh Bomb. Previously arrested in 1999 all evidence had been put before him and he was found to have no case to answer. In subsequent years he has faced two civil suits, one he was found not responsible and on appeal he was found responsible after contradictory evidence from a witness named as Denis O’Connor. This same man I may add, a known con man to the authorities having been involved in a money racket involving counterfeit C2 contractor licences, a con he openly admits and one he has never been brought to book for. Not only was his evidence implausible placing his mobile phone in two places at once but coming from a self-confessed con man, one could be led to believe a deal had been struck!

After all this and more not an eyebrow was raised for Seamus Daly by the media who at any time could have looked into these facts. There are current details surrounding the current case that I won’t go into at present for legal reasons but to say they are incredulous is an understatement.

Seamus had been living in Jonesborough Co. Armagh, contrary to the prosecutions version of events he had been living quite openly, enjoying a family life and looking forward to the birth of a new baby. According to the Police he had been eluding them, that they could not locate him for over 5 years.

In 2015 are we supposed to believe that the Police with all their technology, cross border partnerships and with Police co-operation at its highest level in decades they could not find one man?

Was Seamus Daly even to know they were looking for him? I don’t remember any local appeals in regards his whereabouts, or was this all a fabrication for the court to ensure that he wouldn’t be bailed as a flight risk?

Why was Seamus Daly re-arrested at all? Considering no new evidence has been presented since he was found to have no case to answer in 1999. Is it because the Omagh bomb is high profile and they are clamouring to close the case?

Seamus Daly is an Irish Republican; he comes from a Republican household. Is it a case of his face fits the bill. The investigation into the Omagh bomb has been inept to say the least. The British Government are coming under increasing pressure to close the case. In an effort to cover up their own incompetence are they content to just get anybody?

For many questioning the arrest of Seamus Daly through sustained Government and media propaganda is tantamount to supporting the Omagh Bomb. In recent weeks media doors have been shut to a Daly family statement outlining a campaign. So afraid are the media of being accused of some kind of support for the “Omagh Bomber”

I am not asking you to accept Seamus Daly’s version of events but I am asking you to not just blindly follow the British Governments version of events. History proves that British Justice in Ireland has been bias and at times cases against Irish citizens entirely fabricated as was proven in cases such as the Birmingham 6 or Guildford 4. Stitch ups to close cases are not unprecedented. The nature of British Justice has not changed since the Birmingham 6 or Guildford 4. Much as people would find it hard to believe that such could happen today in 2015, so too did people in the 70’s and 80’s.

The victims of the Omagh are well documented and spoken about. If we ignore this and turn a blind eye, Seamus Daly could potentially be the most recent victim of the Omagh bomb.

18 comments:

  1. Cait there are number of Tds that have been helpful in cases like this! You should speak to these individuals to make them aware of this case. They have been successful in the past!

    Thank god people like you have the courage to stand up to this illegal state activity! I hope fellow republicans and human rights supporters have your back!

    Even contact nula olann she is all over the omagh bomb case and I think has some sort of legal knowledge . Ask her to put her money were her mouth is and make comment on this case and the rule of law! She also had some sort of high position with the free state government! She might still do!

    Your right there is no real evidence in this case and it is based on the word of a crook and liar! This policy seems to becoming the safe way for the Brits to get a conviction in their dip lock courts! It's a hard struggle and it shouldn't be a struggle at all! Ard mor achara!

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  2. The 6 Counties are in dire need of more courageous people like Cait Trainor to stand up in the midst of British hegemony and defy it! I appreciate The Pensive Quill for printing it.

    Ronnie Austin, American

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  3. Are Irish republicans really the right people to be criticising anyone's justice system? Ask yourself this: would you rather face British justice in the High Court or republican "justice" in a shed off the Omeath road? I suspect most people on this island would choose the former.

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  4. Peter, I would rather you take your dip lock, British courts back to your so-called U.K., and keep them there.

    Ronnie Austin

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  5. You, Peter, side with Unionism which is in cahoots with British imperialism in the 6 Counties. The British, dip lock court system belongs in London, not Ireland.

    Ronnie

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  6. Peter

    I have considered, and, in fact even suggested to members of the NI Assembly, that a paramilitary style punishment beating would have been more humane than what I got through the Courts.

    Cait

    Another factor that should not be forgotten. Although fewer Diplock Trials have been hailed as an improvement the conveyor belt is still revolving where slower does not mean better. The fewer people subjected to Diplock trials means the greater the stigma that an unappealable adverse inference is drawn that they are dangerous. A defendant might never recover from such inferences. These inferences are made by the Prosecution who know that removing a jury improves their chances of obtaining a successfully conviction regardless of the lack of any credible evidence.

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  7. While not dissolving the Real IRA of its role - and no-one disputes their role - we can't look at Omagh any other way than that the Brits could have stopped it and they SHOULD have stopped it. They allowed that bomb to go off despite clear advance warnings, knowledge of the team involved, the tracking of their movements on the day and God knows what else. Why it wasn't stopped or intercepted en route only they can answer but these are questions that need asking and the families who had loved one's killed deserve the truth. We as a society deserve the truth. Most people haven't a clue who or what they're dealing with when it comes to the psychopaths who run British Intelligence and the deep state, most have no understanding or cognisance of what these people are capable of. The Real IRA are a sideshow in this story, the bigger question is what was the British role and if it was as deep or as dirty as some of us believe, and as all available evidence suggests, including their own admissions thus far, then how can they ever be considered as acceptable in this country? British rule is not fit for purpose if it's predicated on such heinous and calculated manipulation - regardless of the Real IRA or anyone else who might have been involved. All of that might invade and disturb our sensitivities and sensibilities but it's the hard reality at the heart of the horrific events of that terrible, terrible day. With the Omagh families refusing to go away and continuing to ask the most awkward of questions for the state, the Brits want this case closed off from public scrutiny at all; costs, the truth is too explosive and its implications damning for the British government and its presence in Ireland. If Seamus Daly is to be signed, sealed and delivered before a Diplock Judge in order for this to happen then, like Mickey McKevitt before him, chances are he's in for a serious stint in gaol. There are some who would say good enough for him but we need to see past that and to the truth of this case - which is it was an orchestrated false-flag military intelligence operation involving either agent provocateurs, unkwowing dupes or even both. Either way the Brits should not be allowed to sweep what they done under the carpet.

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  8. Peter
    You need to take a look what goes on in maghaberry punishment beatings are a daily occourence !

    U can't have both ways brutality is brutality! At least with criminal elements within republicanism it's icer a lot quicker!

    But I suppose this truth is to uncomfortable for you!

    Go check it out !

    Sentenced to ten 15 years no jury brutal attacks daily that's the British system you seem happy to promote!

    Wake up!

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  9. Sean
    The RIRA made the bomb, transported it to a busy Irish market town and detonated it. The ultimate responsibility lies with them, no matter how you try to deflect the utter evil madness of the "operation".

    Che
    We all know British justice stinks especially when it comes to Irishmen, but how has Irish republican justice treated its fellow Irishmen? A legacy of kneecappings, broken bones, broken lives and corpses would suggest even worse than the British. Irish republican rantings about British justice would hold more weight if republicans were sticklers for justice themselves but that is not the case, as you well know.

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  10. Peter, I would appeal to you to look into the established facts around this case before dismissing what I've said. That the Real IRA made the bomb is not in dispute, that they transported and detonated it likewise. No-one is suggesting otherwise but that alone cannot account for the actions of the state. They were given three separate warnings in the lead-up, one a full four months beforehand from Dave Rupert, who some of our commentators might remember. This alone should have been an indication that Omagh was a possible target. Two weeks before the bomb MI5 were informed of a plot to mount a major gun or bomb attack in Omagh, they received this specific information which they later claimed was dismissed as a 'rogue Special Branch warning'. When Rupert, who MI5 had access to, had warned Omagh was a target then why would such information be dismissed so casually - especially when Moira, Portadown and Banbridge had already proven that the threat from those concerned was very real. Less than a week before the bomb an agent inside the Real IRA warned his handlers that he had come across preparations for a massive bomb attack but didn't know where - he did though give them the location of the hayshed in Louth where the Cavalier that went on to wrecked Omagh lay in wait with its deadly cargo. Are we to believe they couldn't have concluded from this information that Omagh was to be the next hit? Come on. On the day itself GCHQ has publicly admitted they had the car moniotered and were able to track its movements by satellite, the only thing that isn't clear is whether or not it was a live operation. The idea it wasn't is for the deluded. If they had satellite surveillance on it are we seriously expected to believe they couldn't tell where the bomb was parked, that they were clearing the wrong area unbeknownst? Cuts no mustard with me. Likewise RUC Special Branch admitted three years ago that phones used by the bombing unit had all been cracked, their communications intercepted on the day - 'the bricks are in the wall'. The desk sergeant in Omagh that day admitted to the inquest investigation team, under oath, that he had received a third bomb warning from the Samaritans which clearly stated the bomb was '300 yards down the town from the courthouse' - where it exploded. When asked what he done with the information he said he 'turned off his computer and told no-one'. That is a fact, a recorded fact that emerged when O'Loan looked at the case. That she quickly dropped it, despite the disturbing details she'd unearthed and had begun making public, tells me someone told her let this one slide if you don't want to end up like Nelson or Finucane. They could have stopped that bomb but chose not to, I'd even go as far as to say they deliberately placed the people of Omagh into harms way to maximise the deathtoll. Do not think for one second those with a racist colonialist mindset, such as those who inhabit Brit Intelligence, would give one hoot about 31 lives lost in Omagh. The facts speak for themselves if you ask me

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  11. Sean
    I'm not dismissing what you said. That spooks were involved in the Omagh bomb would not surprise me at all. What dissappoints me is that you totally ignore the part played by the RIRA, they were the source and cause of the carnage that day. All these unsupported micro groups just play into the hands of the spooks, it's pathetic. You bang on here about justice and fairness, do you beleive that ALL those guilty of Omagh should be locked up?

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  12. So I'm 'banging on' about justice and fairness eh? That approach offers an insight into your thinking Peter and sounds to me like a convenient way to gloss over the role of your precious state in both this case and the wider conflict - sure everything's alright, the other side done worse. Calculatedly and deliberately allowing 31 lives to be taken, when you could easily have prevented it, when you SHOULD have prevented it, is not something we should gloss over. Why the hell would we on something as important as this?

    Rest assured the families are not and are rightly demanding a full independent international public inquiry. Do you not think they deserve it, do you not think this 'justice and fairness' you say I'm banging on about is within their rights or what? Maybe you'd rather the truth was buried so we can go on pretending Britain was some form of benign presence here, saving the mad Irish from killing each other. Yeah right. The information Lawence Rush had on this case, whose wife Libby was killed in that bombing and who's since died, is well-known to some of us round here and it is devastating.

    The essential point is that Britain is in no fit position to prosecute anyone - on this matter or any other. I suspect your problem is nothing to do with the facts but in what those facts means for your plucky little Ulster and the wider UK state. Either way the facts are there, check them out if you dare because every last thing I've said is not my opinion or a twisted attempt to insert base propaganda, everything I've said is a matter of public record and a stone-cold fact.

    Otherwise I would not dare to make such a point. I am from Omagh, I knew people who were killed, one of whom I played on the same football team as, the other who I used to meet after school daily, when a group of us would meet in Joe's Cafe for coffee and a yarn. I know people who were seriously injured, who had family and friends killed or hurt and no way would I open my mouth on this unless I was 100 percent certain. I know how sensitive this matter is to those who were affected and how difficult it is for them to imagine that there could be more to the story than the Real IRA.

    With all that's already been openly admitted in mind, never mind what they're not telling us, how on earth can it be considered in any way normal for a British court and the British law to try this case? Because the Real IRA planted the bomb? This is enough to say nothing else matters? If that's our thinking then God help us.

    To answer your point, all those involved in Omagh should answer to the appropriate forum, which is most certainly not your British court. I support the families in their request for a full independent international inquiry to establish the full facts and truth of what happened. The appropriate forum to hold those with responsibility to account is not something for me to decide but for sure Britain has no place in such a process - other than itself to be held accountable for its own actions.

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  13. Sean
    Yes you are banging on about justice, always British injustice, never republican injustice. If you look at the actions of republicans with regards to justice in the last 40 years you will find a complete lack thereof. You call for justice for British crimes, fair enough I hope you get it if wrongs were carried out, where are your calls for justice for those who suffered republican injustice? Do you think the micro groups have the right to "punish" those they deem guilty of some crime against republicanism? Where is your outrage for the evil commited by the RIRA in Omagh? Your drive for justice is one sided Sean and therefore lacks credibility.

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  14. Maybe I need to repeat myself Peter but more likely it's simply a case of you refusing to accept the facts. I said from the outset the Real IRA should not be absolved of their responsibilities, you simply chose not to hear. We all know what they done, they don't deny it. The role of the state is a different matter. An impartial examination of the facts make it clear the greater responsibility lies with those who not only failed to execute what should have been considered their public duty but who wilfully allowed that bomb to explode in a packed street to cause maximum death and injury. The Real IRA planted the bomb, yes, no-one disputes or excuses that - not even their most ardent apologists. They did not though deliberately set out to kill all those people; the security forces cannot credibly say the same given the facts on record. One of the first things I noticed at the time of the bombing was that not one Brit or cop was injured and while that could be coincidence I for one have never trusted it. There were also people evacuated from Xtravision, which was outside the range of where they say they believed the bomb was located yet inside the blast range in terms of where it had actually been planted. Again, there could be another explanation but it would be as believable to me as Gerry Adams saying he was never in the IRA. Someone knew something and let's not forget the desk sergeant who received a warning which he claims he ignored. They knew, sure they've admitted it. What does it take for people to accept what went down, for Britain to stand up and say 'you's caught us red-handed'? It'll never happen and while they have dupes like yourself prepared to ignore their actions then they'll continue to get away with it. The bottom line is this is what it takes to uphold your precious Union whether you care to accept it or not

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  15. Now now Sean, don't get all angry. I'm no 'dupe" neither am I ignoring what went on. I'm under no illusions as to the depths that British spooks will plunge to. If anyone let this bomb go off then they need to face the full rigour of the law. That probably will never happen though because spooks almost never face a court, a jail term or an early grave, those are fates reserved for the fools who take them on and the unfortunates who get in the way.

    As for "my precious union", if you had read any of my previous posts you would know that I am in no way precious about the union. England would be outta here in a thrice if Dublin would let them. If the next generation choose a united Ireland then good luck to them. My guess is that it will be a 9 county Stormont and 23 county Dail back inside the Commonwealth. Home rule without the Rome rule if you will. One Ireland One vote will never happen neither will there be a 32 county socialist republic, all a grand waste of time and lives.

    But we have digressed, the original argument was that republican outrage against British injustice has little credibility because republicanism itself has been and still is brutally unjust. I've made my point, maybe we should leave it there. Have a good weekend Sean.

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  16. Maybe it's my 'internet persona' or something but people seem to assume from my comments I'm perpetually angry or something, couldn't be further from the truth. Enjoy the weekend yourself Peter, I can see your point of course but not how it detracts from the far greater culpability of the state. Slan

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  17. A real investigation of Omagh would have included MI5/FBI Agent Patrick "Ed" Buckley who was transferred to Ireland in late 1993 or 1994 where he remained excepting, according to Rupert's testimony during the framing of McKevitt, a brief trip to the Atlanta Olympics bombing murder where he (Buckley) and his colleagues performed his specialty; they framed Security Guard Richard Jewell for it. MI5 selected Buckley for Ireland and Omagh either despite, or because of, his crimes in Chicago in covering for Murderer David Biro and getting the news media to blame the IRA for the Langert murders and then framing me for them. If anyone ever gets serious about the Omagh bombing they will focus upon the activities in Ireland of Buckley and Rupert from 1993/4 until MI5 demobilized them late in the day of 15Aug98. Omagh was merely a larger-scaled repetition of their earlier crimes in Chicago. Years later we learn that the U.S. Neo-Cons helped MI5 to demonize the IRA and secure the GFA so as to free up Britain's military without which they could not have perpetrated their long-planned wars against Islam. (For evidence of this latter sentence see page 450 of Voices From the Grave.)

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  18. First I'm hearing of this guy Buckley to be honest but this is highly interesting and something I would be keen to hear more on. The objectives you allude to have clearly been met

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