Security and UVF sources have confirmed that a man named as a "prime suspect" in the Dublin-Monaghan bombings was a senior member of the UVF at the time of the attack.
Portadown man David Alexander Mulholland (65) died in England on Wednesday night from kidney failure just hours after the publication of the Barron report on the 1974 Dublin-Monaghan bombings which killed 33 people.
In the report one police document cites Mulholland as a "prime suspect". Mr Justice Barron reported that three separate witnesses identified Mulholland from a photograph as being in the car which contained the bomb placed in Parnell Street in Dublin.
RUC officers interviewed Mulholland in the 1990s about the attack but he denied involvement. He was living in Wales at that time.
According to one RUC report, quoted in the Barron report, one officer asked him about a photofit that appeared to match his appearance.
"He admitted knowing and drinking with other leading suspects but denied any involvement himself," the officer said.
UVF sources confirmed that Mulholland was a senior member of the organisation in Portadown at the time.
One British army intelligence officer of that period told The Irish Times that Mulholland was suspected of being part of the UVF group that planned and carried out the attacks in Dublin and Monaghan.
"The understanding at the time was that the Belfast UVF was responsible for the Dublin attack, while the UVF in Portadown and mid-Ulster was responsible for Monaghan. Mulholland was more associated with the Portadown group behind the Monaghan attack, even though some eye witness accounts actually place him in one of the Dublin bomb cars on the day," he said.
The charges against Mulholland have upset his family. He died in Chester on Wednesday night and is due to be cremated there on Friday. His sister Ms Beth Freeburn told the Belfast Telegraph she was "horrified" that he was named as a chief suspect.
"David was lifted years ago about the bombing and held for four days but he was never charged. How do you think it made the family feel when we had to read about this just after he died," she said.
"I think it is a disgrace that at a time like this when we are grieving that we have had all this dragged up again. It is very hurtful. If David had had anything to do with this he would have been charged years ago, but he was an innocent man," added Ms Freeburn.
"He will not now have a chance to clear his name.
"He used to come back to Portadown every year. Would he have done that if he was not an innocent man?" she asked.
