Relatives of victims of the 1998 Omagh bombing have issued fresh demands for aninquiry into the attack after senior gardai were accusedof ignoring a warning about the bomb to protect an informer.
Twenty-nine people were killed in the attack by the RealIRA, a republican splinter group opposed to the peace process.
The Observernewspaper said it had obtained a transcript ofa taped conversation between a named informer in the groupand his police handler, in whichthe informer alleges the bomb was allowed to "go through" to preservehis cover.
The paper said the informer provided intelligence on nine different Real IRA bombplots. Five were thwarted thanks to hisinformation but four were allowed to go ahead to maintain his"credibility" in the organisation.
In the transcript the informer claimed he hadgiven gardai intelligence about a stolencar to be used in a bombing across the border just 24 hours before the Omagh attack.
Asked about the newspaper report, a garda spokesman said there was "no comment to make atthis point".
Michael Gallagher, whose son Aidan was killed in the Omaghblast in August 1998, said the Irish government had toinvestigate claims that police had prior knowledge of theattack.
"I just can't see how they can resist (an inquiry) - by anystandards this is very damning material," he told Reuters,adding: "Omagh is a pressure-cooker and you can't sit on the lidforever."
Families of the victims have long called for aninvestigation into how police on both sides of the Irish borderdealt with the Omagh bombing, the worst single attack in threedecades of the Northern Irish conflict.
Only one person has been convicted in connection with thebombing, for conspiracy. No one has been charged with murder.