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

Meanwhile, at Dundalk Garda Station

There’s a strong Garda presence in Dundalk this morning for the funeral of Republican Seamus McKenna in Ravensdale.

The 58-year-old died in Beaumont Hospital in Dublin at the weekend, after he was injured in a scaffolding accident while working in Dundalk

McKenna was named in a civil case taken by the families of the 29 people killed in the 1998 Omagh bombing. However, he was cleared of any liability in 2009. Four other men – Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly – were found to have been responsible.

Dissident republicans from across Ireland are expected to turn out for today’s funeral proceedings, which begins at the home of McKenna’s son Sean in the Armagh village of Silverbridge. The funeral procession will travel across the border to St Mary’s Church, Ravensdale for Mass at 11am, with burial afterwards in the church cemetary.

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said on Monday that no paramilitary displays would be tolerated at the funeral and the number of Gardaí deployed to Dundalk suggests they are anxious to avoid the situation of last year when a number of shots were fired in the air ahead of the funeral of Real IRA member Alan Ryan’s funeral in Donaghmede in Dublin.

Previously: IRA tribute to be banned from McKenna funeral

IRA tribute to be banned from McKenna funeral

Seamus McKenna

Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan has warned that his force will not allow a paramilitary display at the funeral of Omagh bomb suspect Seamus McKenna.

Mr McKenna died on Sunday after falling from scaffolding while carrying out repairs on a school outside Dundalk last Wednesday. He sustained serious head injuries and was transferred from Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda to Beaumont where he was placed on life support.

Gardai are concerned that attempts will be made by dissident republican groups to stage a paramilitary display at his funeral in Ravensdale tomorrow. His remains were removed last night from his son’s home to a funeral home in his native Silverbridge, Co Armagh.

Police on both sides of the Border suspect that Mr McKenna was linked by a mobile phone to the Omagh atrocity, which killed 29 people in August 1998. But he was never charged in connection with the bombing.

Mr McKenna was also one of five people sued in a civil compensation case by the families of the Omagh victims. But he was cleared by the judge. The families won their case against the other four defendants, including the founder member of the Real IRA, Michael McKevitt.

At a garda reserve graduation ceremony in Templemore, Co Tipperary, Mr Callinan firmly laid down a marker for the dissidents: “There is one army in this country and there is one policing service. We will ensure that position remains.

“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,” he said.

Source: The Irish Independent

Previously: Omagh bomb suspect McKenna dies after fall

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

Omagh suspect in coma after fall

Seamus McKenna

One of the men alleged to have been involved in the Omagh bomb plot of 1998 is fighting for his life after a fall.

Construction labourer Seamus McKenna (60) fell off a school roof in Faughart on Friday.

He was rushed to Beaumont Hospital in Dublin and fell into a coma. His family were holding a vigil at his bedside last night.

Twenty-nine people, including a woman pregnant with twins, died in the Omagh attack on August 15, 1998.

In 2009, Mr McKenna was accused by the relatives of the Omagh victims of being responsible for the terrorist attack.

The Dundalk man was cleared in a civil action taken against him by the victim’s families in 2009.

Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt and three other men – Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly – were found to be responsible for the attack by a judge in a landmark civil case brought by victims’ families at Belfast High Court.

The relatives launched the action after the failure of the police to secure a criminal conviction over the bombing.

They sued five men and the Real IRA as an organisation for up to £14m in a case which made legal history when it sat to hear evidence in both Belfast and Dublin.

They took three months to sift through the evidence and produce his judgment that the case was proved against the four men, none of whom attended the hearings.

McKevitt is a founding member of the Real IRA.

Despite being cleared in the civil case, gardai remain convinced that McKenna was involved in the atrocity.

Armagh man McKenna was a labourer who previously worked for Colm Murphy and at the civil case it was alleged that he used one of the mobile phones provided by Murphy on the day of the bombing.

He served six years in jail after he was convicted of possessing explosives and the Omagh civil action heard he was drinking in Murphy’s pub on the night of the bombing.

Source: The Evening Herald