THE son of a man who was convicted of the 1998 Omagh bombing but later cleared in a retrial, has been jailed for the possession of explosives at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.
Last month, before going to trial, Conan Murphy (30) pleaded guilty to the possession of explosive substances at Aghaboys, Mount Pleasant, Co Louth on May 22 2010.
It was to be his second trial for the offence.
In 2012, the Special Criminal Court found him guilty of possessing the explosive substances and sentenced him to eight-and-a-half years in jail.
Murphy successfully appealed that conviction last year and a retrial was ordered by the Court of Appeal.
He is the son of Colm Murphy, who was convicted of the Real IRA bombing of Omagh which killed 29 people but later cleared in a retrial following a successful appeal.
Colm Murphy was also one of four men found by a civil court to be liable for the Omagh bombing.
He was found liable by Belfast High Court in 2013 after a successful appeal and re-trial.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, with Judge Martin Nolan and Judge Gerard Haughton, said that the court was satisfied that materials Murphy was found with in a shed following garda surveillance in May 2010 formed part of a bomb.
"The potential for death and destruction was significant and obvious," he said, adding that the "timely intervention" of a garda special unit prevented the bomb from being completed.
The court heard that among the mitigating factors were Murphy's guilty plea and his lack of previous.
He was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, with 18 months suspended, backdated to January 1 this year.
