The Special Criminal Court judges said Colm Murphy was "a republican terrorist of long standing, having been convicted of serious offences of that nature in this State and in the United States of America, for each of which he served prison sentences".
A native of Belleek in Co Armagh, Murphy was arrested just across the Border on the streets of Dundalk on March 6th, 1972, when he was questioned about an assault. Gardaí found a loaded revolver in his car, and he was subsequently jailed for two years for unlawful possession of firearms by the Special Criminal Court in June 1972.
He was sent to Portlaoise Prison and from there to the Curragh military prison, but escaped after only a few months in October 1972 and remained "on the run" until his recapture in May 1973.
He came before the Special Criminal Court again in June 1976 and was given a three-year sentence for firearms offences and a one-year concurrent sentence for IRA membership.
Murphy surfaced again in the United States where he was convicted on July 15th, 1983, for attempting to buy a consignment of M60 machineguns for the INLA and jailed for five years.
He was given early release, returned to Ireland in December 1985 and based himself in Dundalk. From there he built up a successful building contractor business and bought himself land and a pub, the Emerald Bar in Church Street in Dundalk for £100,000 in the late 1980s (the licensee is Murphy's wife, Anne).
He owns a recently renovated bungalow home at Jordan's Corner, Ravensdale, Dundalk, less than a mile from the Border and 30 acres of land on the Dublin Road in Drogheda. Murphy told his Garda interrogators that he bought the land for £82,000 in 1995.
Since his return from the US, Murphy has built up an extensive and successful business, including a building contracting business said to be worth £1 million a year, which employed up to 30 brick- and blocklayers. However, during the 25-day trial at the Special Criminal Court, Murphy's counsel, Mr Michael O'Higgins, claimed that, since he was charged in connection with the Omagh bomb, Murphy's business had suffered greatly.