Omagh families picket `Real IRA' fundraiser

Families of Omagh bomb victims who confronted members of the group recognised as the political wing of the "Real IRA" at a London…

Families of Omagh bomb victims who confronted members of the group recognised as the political wing of the "Real IRA" at a London fund-raising meeting at the weekend were praised by Northern Ireland First Minister, Mr David Trimble.

Relatives of some of the 29 murdered in the 1998 "Real IRA" atrocity picketed a pub where a branch of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and the Irish Republican Prisoners' Welfare Association met supporters of a Turkish-Kurdish terror group on Saturday night.

There were highly-charged scenes inside the Cock Tavern in Euston as the families recognised one member of the republican group as Omagh councillor, Mr Francis Mackey, chairman of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement.

The families' challenge to the group came the day after the Irish Government joined Britain in a call to the US authorities to designate the "Real IRA" as a terrorist organisation in a bid to thwart fund-raising in America.

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Mr Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, praised the relatives for their "tireless" campaign against the "Real IRA" and 32 County Sovereignty Movement.

The decision of the relatives to travel to London and directly challenge the leadership of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement was "another courageous act", said Mr Trimble.

Drinkers in the downstairs bar of the Euston pub - the fund-raiser was in an upstairs room - looked shocked as about a dozen Omagh relatives and their supporters entered just before 8 p.m., followed by a pack of journalists and TV crews.

Mrs Donna-Maria Barker, mother of bomb victim James, made a tearful appeal for an end to violence and murder in Ireland.

Michael Gallagher, whose 21year-old son Adrian died in the bombing, said: "It flies in the face of everything we have had to put up with over the last two-and-a-half years."