Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
The Sunday Times in 1985 reported that Slab Murphy had been appointed the Provisional IRA operations commander for Northern Ireland and had sanctioned a planned bombing campaign of 12 seaside resorts in England which was thwarted when British police arrested the IRA active service unit in Glasgow.
During the first libel trial at the Four Courts in Dublin in 1990, the jury was shown aerial photographs of the Murphy farm complex. It was told that four companies were run from the complex, one of them an oil distribution company named after Weststar, an oil company that featured in the popular 1980’s American TV series Dallas.
The jury at that trial also heard that that two Irish customs officers who called to the Murphy farm in April, 1989 were attacked by Murphy, who threw a concrete block at them.
Evidence in trials
During the 1990 libel trial the Sunday Times called as a witness Brendan Mc Gahon, then a Fine Gael TD for Louth, who told the jury that he had no doubt that Murphy had links with the IRA. The newspaper also called five gardai, British Army Brigadier Peter Morton and three customs officers as witnesses.
The jury also heard that gardaí had found a false passport in the name of Jim Faughey which Murphy had used to travel abroad.
It was one of 100 blank passports stolen from the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1984. Passports from the same batch were found along with plans to bomb British seaside resorts when police raided a house in Glasgow and arrested an IRA active service unit in 1985.
Following Murphy’s successful appeal to the Supreme Court against the jury’s findings in 1990, a retrial was held in 1998 during which the Sunday Times called two former Provisional IRA members, Sean O’Callaghan and Eamon Collins.
Eamon Collins, who was later murdered near his home in Newry, Co Down, told the jury that Murphy was “the most senior IRA man” he had met.
O’Callaghan, who worked as a garda informer while also active as a senior Provisional IRA member, told the jury that that he had met Murphy at two meetings of the IRA Army Council’s General Headquarters Staff in 1984 and 1985.
The jury in the second libel case took less than an hour to reject Murphy’s case and found against him.
The estimated cost of the second libel case alone in legal fees was around €1.5 million.
The Sunday Times in 1985 reported that Slab Murphy had been appointed the Provisional IRA operations commander for Northern Ireland and had sanctioned a planned bombing campaign of 12 seaside resorts in England which was thwarted when British police arrested the IRA active service unit in Glasgow.
During the first libel trial at the Four Courts in Dublin in 1990, the jury was shown aerial photographs of the Murphy farm complex. It was told that four companies were run from the complex, one of them an oil distribution company named after Weststar, an oil company that featured in the popular 1980’s American TV series Dallas.
The jury at that trial also heard that that two Irish customs officers who called to the Murphy farm in April, 1989 were attacked by Murphy, who threw a concrete block at them.
Evidence in trials
During the 1990 libel trial the Sunday Times called as a witness Brendan Mc Gahon, then a Fine Gael TD for Louth, who told the jury that he had no doubt that Murphy had links with the IRA. The newspaper also called five gardai, British Army Brigadier Peter Morton and three customs officers as witnesses.
The jury also heard that gardaí had found a false passport in the name of Jim Faughey which Murphy had used to travel abroad.
It was one of 100 blank passports stolen from the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1984. Passports from the same batch were found along with plans to bomb British seaside resorts when police raided a house in Glasgow and arrested an IRA active service unit in 1985.
Following Murphy’s successful appeal to the Supreme Court against the jury’s findings in 1990, a retrial was held in 1998 during which the Sunday Times called two former Provisional IRA members, Sean O’Callaghan and Eamon Collins.
Eamon Collins, who was later murdered near his home in Newry, Co Down, told the jury that Murphy was “the most senior IRA man” he had met.
O’Callaghan, who worked as a garda informer while also active as a senior Provisional IRA member, told the jury that that he had met Murphy at two meetings of the IRA Army Council’s General Headquarters Staff in 1984 and 1985.
The jury in the second libel case took less than an hour to reject Murphy’s case and found against him.
The estimated cost of the second libel case alone in legal fees was around €1.5 million.
