An Irish man has been charged with 29 counts of murder over the Omagh bombing in 1998.
Seamus Daly, 43, of Culloville, Republic of Ireland, is alleged to have been behind the Real IRA (RIRA) attack that was one of the most deadly in the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Four months before the signing of the Good friday peace Agreement, on 15 August 1998, members of the Real IRA filled a stolen Vauxhall Cavalier with 230kg of fertilizer-based explosives left it outside S.D. Kells’ clothes shop in Omagh’s Lower Market Street. The car bomb detonated at about 15:10 BST in the crowded shopping area, killing 29 people and injuring 220 more.
Daly was previously connected to the bombing in a BBC Panorama documentary, and a civil court found him and three others liable for the attack and ordered him and three others to pay £1.5 million in damages to the relatives of the victims of the attack.
Daly also faces two charges related to an attempted bomb attack in Lisburn, County Antrim, that took place in the same year as the Omagh bomb, but diffused before it could be detonated.
Concern that Daly may flee the jurisdiction has meant that he was refused bail, and was was remanded in custody to appear again in May at Dungannon Magistrates’ Court.
Daly denies any involvement in the bombing.
