Colm Murphy has walked free from the Special Criminal Court after it directed his acquittal on a charge connected to the Omagh bombing.

Mr. Murphy, from Ravensdale near Dundalk in Co Louth, was standing retrial after being freed on bail in 2005 when the Court of Criminal Appeal quashed his original conviction.

The prosecution had alleged that Colm Murphy lent two phones to a man who used them while transporting a bomb in a stolen Vauxhall Cavalier car from Dundalk to Omagh.

Mr. Murphy was charged with conspiring to cause an explosion between 13th and 16th August 1998 – a charge he denied.

On this day 20 of his re-trial, the three judge Special Criminal Court directed his acquittal after ruling that all the garda interviews conducted with Mr Murphy were inadmissable.

No-one North or South has ever been convicted of the 1998 atrocity, which claimed the lives of 29 people.

Michael Gallagher lost his son in the 1998 bomb attack on Omagh.

He’s told Lunchtime here on Newstalk the families feel deeply disappointed and very let down by the justice system.

“I feel that the British and Irish criminal justice system is not capable of putting people behind bars for crimes such as Omagh” he said.

“We had 31 people murdered; we had the Prime Minister, the Taoiseach and the President of the United States take a direct interest in this case and yet the authorities on both sides of the border were not capable of catching those responsible ” he added.