IN/0538

Dundalk 'relief' at jail sentence
By Valerie Robinson

THE lawyer who led a peace demonstration in Dundalk in the wake of the Omagh bomb has said he is "happy" that Colm Murphy received a 14-year prison sentence for his role in the atrocity.
John Woods was among Dundalk residents and business people who organised a massive rally in the Co Louth town in support of the Omagh victim's relatives after the 1998 bomb attack.
The solicitor last night said residents felt relief that 49-year-old Colm Murphy, who lived in Dundalk with his wife and four children, had been jailed for plotting the Real IRA bombing.
Mr Woods said: "The law has taken its course. I'm happy with that."
He praised gardai for their work in bringing Murphy before the Special Criminal Court, adding that members in Dundalk had "made massive inroads into the Real IRA's terrorist base".
"Only a fraction of people in Dundalk support terrorists. The Real IRA membership anyway is minuscule and the gardai have been very successful recently in dealing with them."
The solicitor said he became involved in the Dundalk peace demonstration, which attracted 15,000 local residents, because of the 1991 murder of Co Louth farmer Tom Oliver.
"I'm from Cooley and Tom Oliver was a Cooley man. I knew him and had been looking across the border for 30 years and seeing the awfulness of what was going on.
"Omagh gave me an opportunity to act on how I felt about what was happening."
Mr Oliver, a 37-year-old farmer and father of seven, was found shot dead near Belleek in Co Armagh. The Provisional IRA claimed responsibility for the murder.
Dundalk businessman Brian O'Neill who co-organised the Dundalk rally also welcomed Murphy's conviction and sentence.
He said: "The vast, vast majority of people living within the Republic want to go about our general life and because of the peace process we can do that.
"But the lives of the Omagh victims' relatives will never go back to normal."
Meanwhile, speculation is mounting in the Republic that Murphy, who could be freed from prison in less than 11 years, is to be investigated by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
The Garda unit which in 2000 seized cash and property worth more than £10 million from southern criminals is said to be keen to probe the republican's finances.
Murphy, who has served terms in Portlaoise Prison, the Curragh military camp and a US jail for his paramilitary activities, ran the Emerald Bar in Church Street, Dundalk, as well as owning a construction business and owning more than 30 acres of land on the Dublin Road in Drogheda.
CAB are said to be gearing up to investigate whether Murphy used his life as a successful businessman as a front to help fund dissident activities.