AMONG those to plead guilty to charges arising out of a covert MI5 bugging operation against the Continuity IRA was one of the republican movement's most active and ruthless members.
The men had been due to go on trial next Monday over the undercover eavesdropping operation on a bungalow at Ardcarn Park in the city in 2014 where CIRA meetings had been held.
Patrick 'Mooch' Blair is a veteran of armed republicanism and linked to numerous atrocities and at least three paramilitary organisations.
In 1975 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempted murder, while at that time a member of the South Down IRA.
When he was released from jail in 1982 he moved to Dundalk in Co Louth and immediately became involved with members of the South Armagh IRA.
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- Seven men plead guilty to Continuity IRA charges following MI5 bugging
- Top Troubles IRA figure pleads guilty in MI5 bugging case
Following the Provisional IRA ceasefires he split from mainstream republicans and went on to become and active member of the Real IRA.
Blair was later named in the House of Commons as having "helped to construct the Omagh bomb", the Real IRA 1998 atrocity which killed 29 people.
In 2002 Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson used Parliamentary privilege to name Blair in connection with the attack.
He said Blair was "a man who is a member of the Provisional IRA and who helped to construct the Omagh bomb".
Blair was also named as a suspect by one-time MI5 informer Kevin Fulton.
In November 2011 Blair gave evidence to the Smithwick Tribunal investigating whether a garda in Dundalk passed information to the IRA that allowed them to set up an ambush and kill two senior RUC officers.
Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan died minutes after leaving a meeting in the station on March 20 1989.
During the tribunal hearing he described claims of a 59-second phone call from a phone attributed to him to the Real IRA unit which planted the Omagh bomb as a "big coincidence".
Liam Hannaway, who also pleaded guilty yesterday was previously sentenced to ten years for possession of explosives in 2008.
A distant relative of former Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, he was linked at the time to the small dissident republican group Saor Uladh.
While still on remand at Maghaberry prison, he was approached by prison staff and told of an alleged threat to his life by unnamed republicans.
He embarked on a brief hunger strike after being held in isolation for the majority of his sentence.
He has also dabbled in the past with the Real IRA and, at the time of his arrest, a faction of the Continuity IRA operating under a Limerick leadership.
Another of the defendants who pleaded guilty is Seamus 'Jap' Morgan. At 64-years-old he is one of the oldest members of the gang and also well known to police on both sides of the border.
A Limerick man, Sean O’Neill, died in 2018 after a long illness. He was also wanted by police in connection with the plot.
At the time of his death there was a live warrant out for his arrest. He had previously been held on remand in Maghaberry and fled after being released on bail.
The 79-year-old, who was present during the Newry raid in November 2014, was buried with full republican honours.
Read more:
- Seven men plead guilty to Continuity IRA charges following MI5 bugging
- Top Troubles IRA figure pleads guilty in MI5 bugging case
