COLM Murphy, who had his conviction over the Omagh bomb quashed, has lost his long-running battle to stop a retrial.
Murphy, from Co. Louth, is the only man to have been imprisoned in connection with the no-warning atrocity and now faces a second high-profile prosecution in the New Year.
He tried to stop the new action, claiming memory loss and systematic delays by prosecutors. But at Dublin's High Court on Tuesday, Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill dismissed the case.
"I am satisfied that the memory impairment which inflicted the applicant has not at all affected his ability to recall relevant events and in particular his participation in interviews with members of An Garda Siochana," the judge said.
The judge also said memory loss would not have affected the instructions Murphy gave his legal team and that it was entirely unconnected to his right to a fair trial.
He also ruled Murphy was to blame for delays in the High Court action, and ultimately the pending retrial, and cleared the Director of Public Prosecutions of any fault.
Murphy was jailed at Dublin's Special Criminal Court in 2002 for conspiring to cause the Real IRA explosion which killed 29 people and unborn twins in August 1998.
Meanwhile, the father of an Omagh bomb victim has spoken at an international terrorism conference being held in the United States. Michael Gallagher, whose son Aiden was among the 29 people killed in the August 1998 Real IRA atrocity, travellled to Washington DC this week for the two-day event.
The conference, Overcoming Extremism: Protecting Civilians from Terrorist Violence, is part of the post-conflict reconstruction project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
The CSIS, launched at the height of the Cold War, has become a leading public policy institution on US and international security.
The conference, on October 22-23, featured top scholars, civil society leaders, lawyers, journalists, government and military officials.
They examined effective government responses to changes in international humanitarian law and innovative approaches to protecting civilians.
Its aim was to develop a shared international agenda for shielding the public from terrorist violence.
As well as learning from the gathered experts, Mr Gallagher sokeon his experiences of terrorism.
