Charged: Seamus Daly.
A man accused of the murder of 29 people in the 1998 Omagh bomb has been remanded in custody – on the day his wife is due to give birth.
Seamus Daly (43) faced 29 counts of murder and two charges linked to the explosion in Omagh when he appeared Dungannon Magistrates’ Court this morning.
The victims included a woman who was pregnant with twins.
Three primary school children from Buncrana, Oran Doherty, James Barker and Sean McLaughlin who were on a school trip to the Co Tyrone town on the day of the bombing, were among those killed in the atrocity.
Daly, originally from Culloville in County Monaghan, also faced two charges related to an attempted bomb attack in Lisburn, County Antrim, that took place in the same year as the Omagh bomb.
Defence barrister Dermot Fee told the court the evidence against Daly was “very weak.”
Applying for bail, Mr Fee said Daly had an address in Jonesborough and had lived in Northern Ireland for two years and had made no attempt to conceal his identity during that time.
He said Daly’s wife, family and his “whole life” were located in the North.
A PSNI detective inspector told the court he could connect Daly to a total of 33 charges, including the murder of the 29 people killed in the Real IRA bomb attack in Omagh, on the basis of telephone evidence, witnesses and forensic evidence.
Objecting to bail, he said there was a risk of Daly leaving the jurisdiction and interfering with witnesses.
Daly was remanded in custody to appear via video link at Omagh Magistrates Court on 6 May next.
Daly was arrested in the car park of the Daisy Hill Hospital in Newry on Monday where his due to have a baby today (Friday).Seamus Daly has been connected to the bombing of Omagh before.
He was taken to the PSNI’s serious crime suite in Antrim for questioning before being charged yesterday and brought to court this morning.
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