Families bereaved by the Omagh bombing have demanded that action be taken against fundraising efforts by dissident republicans. The relatives have written to a major Irish bank urging it to refuse business from the paramilitaries.
Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the "Real IRA" car-bomb blast which killed 29 people and injured over 300 when the bomb detonated on the main street of the Co Tyrone town on a Saturday afternoon.
Members of the Omagh Support and Self Help Group have used the Internet to monitor the websites of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and Republican Sinn Fein, political organisations allegedly linked to dissident republican groups.
The chairman of the support group, Mr Micheal Gallagher, who lost his son, Adrian (21), in the blast, yesterday said the relatives had located several fundraising bank accounts on both sides of the Border.
He said some relatives were particularly angered by the existence of an AIB bank account in the name of the Irish Republican Prisoners' Welfare Association.
Contributors are requested to send donations for the 24 "anti-Stormont" prisoners to an AIB account in the Dundalk branch.
"We would have preferred not to have brought this into the public domain but it appears that the bank have made up their minds that they have done nothing outside the law. We would argue that there is the law and then there is a moral law," said Mr Gallagher.
The families have monitored the websites for over six months, and one relative who lost a partner in the blast has been engaged in correspondence with the AIB, calling on the bank to close the account.
"I have genuine concerns about AIB managing accounts on behalf of clients who may be members of a gang who rob, bomb, murder, injure, traumatise and intimidate as a matter of course," said one letter addressed to the bank chairman.
In a reply, the bank said it wished to have "no truck" with law-breakers and sympathised with the relative about the bomb attack, which it described as a "barbaric act".
"In my previous two letters I clearly stated our policy of conducting our business in compliance with the law and of not knowingly supporting illegal activities," the letter said.
"We do not support, condone or recognise so-called political offences, and your suggestion that we welcome business from illegal sources is groundless and unfair.
"Because of the bank's strict legal duty of confidentiality, I am not, unfortunately, at liberty to comment on the account of any customer without that customer's consent. There is no latitude in this matter and I cannot, therefore, address some of your questions."
Mr Gallagher stressed that the onus for the delivery of justice for the bomb victims fell not solely on the governments or the police but also on those within the wider republican family.
To date one man has been charged in connection with the attack, and the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, admitted earlier this year he believed the bombers would never be apprehended.
"Sinn Fein and the IRA have always been very selective on which atrocities they seek justice for. Now that the republican movement appears to have turned a corner they need to deal with the law-and-order issue or Omagh will for ever be the anvil which republicans are hammered on," said Mr Gallagher.