McKenna funeral passes off peacefully

Seamus McKenna

The funeral of Seamus McKenna, who was suspected of being involved in the Omagh bombing, has passed off peacefully according to RTÉ News.

A large garda security operation ensured there was no paramilitary display as the 58-year-old was laid to rest in Ravensdale.

Mr McKenna died after he fell from scaffolding while repairing a roof at a school in Kilcurry last week.

He was acquitted in a civil action taken by relatives of the Omagh bomb victims.

They claimed he was linked to mobile phones used in the 1998 attack, which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

Armed checkpoints were set up on the approach roads to St Mary’s Church in Ravensdale this morning and cars were searched.

Four units of the public order unit were on standby along with the mounted unit, the Emergency Response Unit and uniformed gardaí.

The garda helicopter monitored the funeral and officers from the special detective unit escorted the mourners to prevent any dissident republican show of strength.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan had warned that the force would not allow any such activity.

“There is one army in this country and there is one policing service. We will ensure that position remains,” Commissioner Callinan said on Monday.

“We do not like being present in any large numbers at a particularly sensitive time when people are burying their loved ones. But we will not allow any display of paramilitarism.”

Previously: Meanwhile, at Dundalk Garda Station

Omagh bomb suspect McKenna dies after fall

Seamus McKenna

Omagh bomb suspect Seamus McKenna has died after falling from scaffolding last week.

McKenna was working as a labourer on a building site in Kilcurry when he was injured in the accident last Monday (July 8).

The 58-year-old was taken to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin where he clung to life.

However, according to today’s Irish Mirror, doctors turned off his life support machine on Saturday after harvesting his organs for transplant. He died early on Sunday.

McKenna was named as one of five men involved in the Omagh bomb in the civil case brought by relatives of those killed in the 1998 atrocity.

They claimed the republican was linked to mobile phones used in the attack in which 29 civilians including a woman pregnant with twins were killed.

However in 2009, Mr Justice Morgan cleared McKenna while finding Michael McKevitt, Colm Murphy, Liam Campbell and Seamus Daly liable for the bombing.

The case against him was dismissed because it was based on evidence from his estranged wife who was deemed an unreliable witness.

During the civil action, the proceedings heard how McKenna had been seen “drowning his sorrows” in a pub after the devastating blast.

McKenna, who comes from a well-known republican family in Silverbridge, Co Armagh, was a member of the Continuity IRA at the time of the Omagh bomb. He remained active in the paramilitary group after the atrocity.

In 2003, McKenna was found by gardai making a 1,200lb bomb at a remote farm in Co Louth. He was sentenced to six years in Portlaoise prison.

McKenna’s brother Sean, a member of the Provisional IRA, was on the group’s first H-Block hunger strike in 1980. When he fell into a coma after 53 days, the Provisionals ended the death fast.

McKenna’s father Sean Snr was one of 14 prisoners who became known as “the hooded men” after they were tortured by the British Army in 1971.

Sources said the Republican Network For Unity, the political wing of dissident group Oglaigh na hEireann, were preparing for the event of a funeral which would be attended by leading dissidents from both sides of the Border.

Source: Cathal McMahon/The Irish Mirror