Colm Murphy: Dead republican who admitted IRA plan to 'ethnically cleanse' unionists once tried to buy assault rifles and SAM-7 missiles from New York mafia boss

Best known as one of the men found liable for the Omagh atrocity of 1998, the 70-year-old had a long and storied career as a republican paramilitary going back decades.

Though never convicted of murder, he has been tied anecdotally to scores of them, as a former major player in the IRA.

Murphy, a building contractor originally of Belleeks, Co Armagh, was suspected – though it was never proved – of being involved in the 1976 Kingsmill Massacre.

It took place at a rural locale about two miles from Belleeks, and saw 11 Protestant civilians lined up on a roadside by the IRA and shot. All but one died.

It has been reported that he was convicted of possessing a revolver in 1972, escaped, and was captured the next year.

In 1976 he was convicted again for firearms offences and IRA membership, and given a three year sentence.

Perhaps most remarkably, he was convicted in the USA of buying 20 M16 assault rifles for $11,000 in travellers cheques in 1982 (see below).

ETHNIC CLEANSING PLAN

In a 2016 interview with the Irish News, Murphy was quoted as saying: "There was an expectation at the time that there would be retaliation (following Kingsmill), and if there was then the area was to be cleared of all unionists.

"The plan was to rid the area of unionists by targeting high-profile people and burning them out, that would have been well known at the time."

Asked if this meant essential 'ethnically cleansing' the area, he said "yes."

"It was called off after the man whose idea it was went up the road to Belfast and was told that if they did that in South Armagh then small Catholic communities in places like Antrim would be at risk and there'd be no way of protecting them.

"You know that was the times we were living in, it sounds incredible now 40-years on but that's what was being talked about at that time.

"Basically driving every single unionist out, clearing them all out, now there are people don't want that kind of detail being made public.”

MURPHY AND THE ‘MAFIA BOSS’

The plot to buy M16s in New York began when Murphy met a man at a bar in Manhattan who turned out to be a criminal-turned-FBI informant.

Murphy had told the man he was with the INLA and was "interested in buying heavy military equipment... missiles, mortars and machine guns", according to a written court judgement.

The man then put Murphy and his accomplice in touch with "a member of the Mafia who dealt in guns and arms" - but in reality, the Mafioso was an undercover FBI agent called DeVecchio.

Murphy specifically wanted SAM-7 missiles or "something that is, has the capability of taking down a helicopter", as well as Ingram submachine guns.

He said the M16s were for use "on the streets of Belfast", and that he was trying to set up a long-term weapon "connection" to the US east coast, not a one-off deal.

"Mob boss" DeVecchio and Murphy met at a McDonald's restaurant for the exchange, but Murphy was spooked when he thought he saw police, so they switched the deal to a nearby White Castle fast food joint.

Once the exchange was done, agents swooped in and made arrests.

Murphy was convicted of what the court in New York called "three rather technical firearms offenses", and was jailed for five years and fined $10,000.

A DECADE-AND-A-HALF LATER CAME OMAGH

On August 15, 1998, a 226kg (500lb) bomb was planted in a stolen car which exploded at the lower end of Market Street in Omagh by the RIRA.

Three bomb warnings were given. One was at 2.30pm inaccurately stating that the bomb was at the courthouse in "Main Street" and was due to go off in 30 minutes.

There is no "Main Street" in Omagh.

There was one at 2.32pm to police in Omagh stating that the bomb was in Omagh town and was due to go off in 15 minutes.

Another call was made around the same time to the Samaritans. It said that the bomb was in "Main Street" about 20 yards from the courthouse and was going to go off in 30 minutes.

The police began to move people away from the main shopping area.

The bomb exploded at 3pm.

The courthouse was actually at the junction of High Street and George's Street, whilst the bomb was some 375 yards away on Market Street.

Courthouse and the police had unknowingly been directing people into its path.

31 people, including two unborn children, were killed.

On January 22, 2002, Murphy was convicted in Dublin's Special Criminal Court of conspiracy to cause an explosion endangering life or likely to cause serious injury or property damage.

He was given a 14 year sentence.

EVIDENCE AGAINST HIM

Murphy was said to have made highly-incriminating admissions during his three day police interrogation in Monaghan in February 1999.

But the judges threw out evidence of two of the interviewing Garda officers, saying that they had altered their written notes at a later date.

Phone records also provided a major piece of the puzzle though.

The day before the August 15, 1998, bombing, Murphy had borrowed the mobile phone of an innocent builder caller Paddy Morgan, and was believed to have given it – plus his own phone – to Seamus Daly, a dissident in Dundalk.

Prosecutors said these electronic logs showed Murphy's phone connecting with Mr Morgan's phone shortly before and after the Omagh blast.

Police believed one phone may have been used by a scout car entering NI from the Republic on the day of the bombing, and the other by the bomb car itself.

Court papers (taken from Murphy’s last major set of court hearings in 2013) show that Murphy told police his phone was at home with him on the day of the Omagh bomb, and he recalled no phone calls.

Yet police could see his phone, and Mr Morgan’s, were moving around in the Omagh area on the day of the bombing.

This emerged when police examined phone signal tower records, which provide a rough location of where someone is making a call from.

Murphy “could give no rational explanation” for any of this, the court said.

The same court papers also recount how a very similar car bombing had taken place two weeks prior in Banbridge, using an identical code-word to Omagh.

On that day, cell phone tower records placed Murphy's phone in the Banbridge area.

It had connected with Daly's phone shortly before the detonation.

After being convicted in 2005 of being part of the Omagh bomb plot though, Murphy's lawyers lodged no fewer than 40 reasons why his conviction should be overturned, ranging from Murphy's detention being unlawful to having had a two-month break during the trial.

On appeal, Ireland's Supreme Court ruled that all police interview evidence against him was tainted, not just that of the two detectives, and acquitted him.

It also said the original trial had improperly relied on his past convictions, saying "it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the previous convictions and bad character of the accused (as so found by the court) formed a significant element in the court’s decision to convict".

The result was that Murphy walked free in 2005, and the two detectives who had altered their notes were prosecuted.

A retrial was ordered in Dublin, which Murphy tried to dodge by claiming he suffered memory loss due to a car crash.

When his trial did get under way, he was acquitted again in 2010.

Just before that, in 2009, a civil court in Belfast ruled that he was among the men liable for the Omagh bomb.

This was then appealed and overturned, and then, in 2013, he was found liable once again.

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