BT/0918

Omagh bomb plotter's sister honoured
US dissident group gives her annual award
By Staff Reporter

A US-based dissident republican group has given an annual award to a sister of Omagh bomb conspirator, Colm Murphy.
The Irish Freedom Committee, which is closely linked to the political group Republican Sinn Fein, gave the award to New York resident, Angela Reilly, in recognition of her contribution to the Irish community.
Mrs Reilly, who has served as a director of Murphy's Mountkeane Construction Company, received the Pearl Flannery Award at the Irish Freedom Committee's annual Michael Flannery memorial dinner in New York.
Flannery, who died in 1994, was a life long IRA supporter and later sided with dissident republicans who split from Sinn Fein in the 1980s.
George Harrison, a veteran IRA gunrunner and prominent New York dissident republican, also attended the ceremony last Friday night.
Ms Reilly, who lives on 29th Avenue, Flushing, New York received the second annual Pearl Flannery award, named after Mr Flannery's wife "in memory of the extraordinary help that Michael's beloved wife Pearl gave to Michael in his long and steadfast struggle in the cause of Irish freedom".
Mrs Reilly, who has a stake in a number of New York Irish bars, attended the 2002 trial of her brother, Colm, who was jailed for 14 years for conspiring to commit the Omagh bombing. Mrs Reilly and other members of her family expressed their disappointment with the verdict and said they felt the conviction was unfair.
Families of the bomb victims are seeking more than £10m in compensation from the Real IRA suspects blamed for the atrocity. Lawyers lodged a huge legal document which confirms the scale of damages they want awarded against five men named in a civil action taken by relatives of those killed in the August 1998 attack.
One of the men named is Colm Murphy.