FACE TO FACE WITH EVIL ; A knock on the door of a remote farmhouse - and a swashbuckling lawyer nicknamed Indiana Jones serves writs on the Omagh bombers. In the final part of our series, how the awesome courage of the victims' families - and the big hearts of Mail readers - led to victory OMAGH THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE [Eire Region]

Daily Mail › June 17, 2009

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Summary

LAST week, relatives of the 29 people and two unborn children murdered in Omagh won a historic court case against the Real IRA bombers who slaughtered their loved ones. In our final extract from a new book charting their 11-year fight for justice, we reveal how, though many were too terrified of the terrorists to help or even donate money (unlike Daily Mail readers, whose generosity funded in large part the campaign), the families bravely fought opposition from all sides to have their day in court.

THE bravery it took for the relatives of those murdered in Omagh to bring the bombers to justice should never be underestimated. Their campaign pitched these ordinary families against men of the Real IRA, for whom violence was second nature.

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Extract

FACE TO FACE WITH EVIL ; A knock on the door of a remote farmhouse - and a swashbuckling lawyer nicknamed Indiana Jones serves writs on the Omagh bombers. In the final part of our series, how the awesome courage of the victims' families - and the big hearts of Mail readers - led to victory OMAGH THE FIGHT FOR JUSTICE [Eire Region]

Yet in the ten years it took to get the bombers and their sidekicks into court, almost all those who set out on this risky course were still there at the end.

By doing so, they knew they might be putting themselves in great personal danger. One event that stiffened their resolve - and tested their courage - was a fund-raising evening in August 2000 held in a pub in a strong republican area in Belfast by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement (32CSM), the political wing of the Real IRA.

News of it caused the families great distress.

'There were tears in my house when we heard of it,' said Michael Gallagher, who...

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