GARDAI have mounted a major security operation in County Louth for the funeral of a Real IRA man involved in the 1998 Omagh bombing which left 31 people including three Buncrana schoolboys dead.
Seamus McKenna fell from scaffolding while repairing a roof at a school in Dundalk last week.
His family switched his life support machine off on Monday at Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital.
Following his death, Michael Gallagher, whose died Aidan died in the Omagh bomb horror, said: “I hope he rots in hell.”
He added: “His hands are drenched in the blood of the Omagh bomb victims.”
McKenna, 58, was acquitted in a civil action taken by relatives of the bomb victims.
They claimed he was linked to mobile phones used in the 1998 attack, which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
The bombing, in County Tyrone, was carried out by the Real IRA.
Armed checkpoints have been set up on the approach roads to St Mary’s Church in Ravensdale and cars are being searched.
Police public order units are on standby along with the mounted unit, the Emergency Response Unit and uniformed police.
The Garda helicopter is monitoring the funeral.
Officers from the special detective unit are escorting the mourners to prevent any paramilitary display or dissident republican show of strength.
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan previously warned that the force would not allow any such activity.
On Monday he said: “There is one army in this country and there is one policing service. We will ensure that position remains.
“We do not like being present in any large numbers at a particularly sensitive time when people are burying their loved ones. But we will not allow any display of paramilitarism.”
A number of people were charged after dissident republican activity at the funeral of a leading Real IRA member in Dublin in September 2012.
Shots were fired over 32-year-old Alan Ryan’s coffin as it left his home. The funeral was accompanied by masked men and women.
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