Gardai investigating the Omagh bombing believe one of the key members of the bombing team is a former leading member of the Provisional IRA's so-called South Armagh Brigade who left late last year and joined the dissident "Real IRA".
The man, in his mid-30s, lives just south of the Border in Co Louth. He comes from a family with long-standing connections with the Provisional IRA. His family circle includes people who were imprisoned for offences committed on behalf of the Provisional IRA. They are among the best known militant republican families in the Border area.
The man believed to be the Omagh bomber was associated with the Provisional IRA from his late teens, when he was suspected of being involved in a number of attacks on the security forces in south Armagh. He was sought for questioning for a long period in the North but successfully avoided arrest. He has never been convicted of a serious offence or spent any time in prison, although other members of his family were imprisoned.
He is understood to have been an early recruit to the "Real IRA" when it broke from the Provisional IRA and was formed under the leadership of a Dundalk man who had been the Provisional IRA's "quartermaster general".
It is believed the bomb components, including the Semtex "booster" charge which greatly increased the power of the bomb, were brought from former Provisional IRA hides in the south-west which fell into the control of the "Real IRA".
Another former leading Provisional IRA figure from the Glen of Agherlow, who sided with the dissidents, is believed to have supplied the components. This man, who has control of bomb hides in isolated forests on the Cork/Tipperary border, is believed to have joined the "Real IRA" earlier this year.
This man has extensive geographical knowledge of the area between Tipperary and Laois. While in the Provisional IRA, it is believed, he was responsible for storing arms and explosives in the Galtee Mountains. Gardai believe the man used his contacts in the midlands and his knowledge of the back roads from Tipperary to Laois to move the explosives north towards the Border and into south Armagh. It is believed the bomb was assembled in the Jonesboro area of south Armagh.
It is not clear who stole the Vauxhall car from outside a house in Carrickmacross the Thursday before the bombing, but the Garda investigators have uncovered a link between the bombers and a ring of car thieves operating in the Dublin-Kildare-Meath area who were supplying cars to the "Real IRA". Once the car and explosives were delivered to south Armagh it is believed the bombing attack became the responsibility of the Co Louth man. It is believed he either drove the car to Omagh or accompanied it in another vehicle, keeping a look-out for security checkpoints.
The Vauxhall was abandoned in Market Street 40 minutes before the explosion and two men were seen walking away from it. The explosion killed 29 people and the unborn twins of Mrs Avril Monaghan, who was killed along with her 18-month-old daughter, Moira. Six of the victims were children. Three people remain critically ill.