Wikipedia:WikiProject Irish Republican Army/Preparation/Colm Murphy

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Colm Murphy (born 18 August 1952, Belleeks, County Armagh ) is an Irish publican and building contractor who was the first person to be convicted in connection with the Omagh bombing, but his conviction was overturned on appeal.

Background
Murphy was an active Irish republican paramilitary from his late teens. In March 1972 he was arrested in Dundalk regarding an assault, and was sentenced to two years in prison after the Gardaí found a loaded revolver in his car. Murphy was imprisoned in Dublin's Curragh military jail but escaped in October 1972, and was not recaptured until May 1973. In June 1976 he was imprisoned again, receiving a three-year sentence for firearms offences and a one-year sentence for Provisional Irish Republican Army membership, both sentences to run concurrently. In July 1983 Murphy was arrested in America, after attempting to buy a consignment of M60 machine guns to be shipped to Ireland for use by the Irish National Liberation Army. He received a five-year prison sentence, but returned to Ireland in December 1985 after being released early.

In the late 1980s Murphy began investing in property, and formed a company named Emerald Enterprises in 1990. He bought the Emerald Bar public house in Dundalk for IR£100,000, and it later became a meeting place for dissident republicans. Other investments included 30 acres of land in Drogheda bought for IR£52,000 in 1995, and his company won contracts for an IR£11m development at Dublin City University and a multi-million pound international financial services centre in Dublin's docklands.

Omagh bombing
Murphy was arrested by the Gardaí on 21 February, 1999 for questioning under anti-terrorist legislation. On 24 February Murphy became the first person charged in connection with the Omagh bombing, when he appeared before Dublin's Special Criminal Court and was charged with conspiring to cause an explosion under the terms of Ireland's Offences Against the State Act, between 13 August and 16 August, 1998. Murphy was also charged with membership of an illegal organisation, the Real Irish Republican Army.

On 10 October 2000 the BBC television show Panorama named Murphy as one four people connected with the Omagh bombing, along with Seamus Daly and Liam Campbell. In 2001 Murphy undertook legal action against the BBC and Daily Mail publishers Associated Newspapers for contempt of court. The action against Associated Newspapers was settled on 31 July 2001, and the newspaper released a statement saying Murphy was entitled to be presumed innocent of the charges against him until proven guilty.

Murphy's trial began at Special Criminal Court in Dublin on 12 October, 2001. The court heard that Murphy had supplied two mobile phones which were used during the bombing. One witness, Murphy's second cousin, retracted his evidence and the judge called the conduct of two detective outrageous, saying they had persistently lied under cross-examination. Despite this, on 22 January 2002 Murphy was convicted of conspiring to cause the Omagh bombing, and on 25 January was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment with the judge describing him as a long-time republican extremist.

On 21 January 2005 Murphy's conviction was overturned and a new trial ordered, due to the invasion of Murphy's presumption of innocence, and alteration of Gardaí interview notes and evidence presented by two officers. A week later Murphy's legal case against the BBC was resolved, with the BBC issuing a statement that Murphy "was fully entitled to maintain his innocence of the charges against him and to test the evidence against him at his trial".

On 23 October 2006 two Gardaí officers were found not guilty of perjuring themselves during Murphy's trial, and Murphy is due to face a retrial in 2007. Murphy's nephew, Sean Hoey, is currently on trial charged with 58 offences including the murder of 29 people in the Omagh bombing.