An anti-paramilitary activist who successfully sued alleged members of the Real IRA after the 1998 Omagh bombing has said he will advise the family of Jean McConville in their proposed civil action against the Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams.
Michael Gallagher and other families of the victims of the Omagh bomb massacre made legal history by suing four alleged Real IRA leaders in a civil action.
Four men, including Seamus Daly and Colm Murphy, were found responsible for the atrocity, in which 29 people died.
Following Adams's release on Sunday after almost five days of questioning by detectives in relation to the McConville killing, Gallagher told the Guardian he would offer any help he could to the murdered widow's family.
Adams denies any involvement with McConville's abduction and murder in 1972. Gallagher said: "If our experience over a decade going after these people can help the family, we would be delighted to do so."
The offer of help came as the former cabinet minister Shaun Woodward called for a referendum to be held in Northern Ireland on a new mechanism to deal with the legacy of the Troubles.
In a Guardian article, Woodward, who was Labour's last Northern Ireland secretary, says the arrest of Adams has shown how the province's troubled past can destabilise the peace process.
He writes: "The people of Northern Ireland should now be given a chance to vote for a future that is certain and secure, with a time-limited mechanism to deal with outstanding problems. This is an opportunity we should not miss. Some good may yet come out of the instability and perils of the last few days."
Explaining how the McConville family could build their case against Adams, Gallagher said: "There are two things I would want to say to the McConvilles initially. The first is that under the rule of disclosure, the family's legal team could apply to look at all relevant material in the case. That means they could obtain the tapes the police have seized from Boston College which contain the testimonies of IRA members and who may have talked about Jean McConville's murder.
"Disclosure could throw up some very interesting material in their future civil action.
"The second thing I would say to the family is that they must get close to the police investigators and build a relationship with them like we did with the Omagh bomb inquiry team, because the family and their lawyers are going to need as much material as possible from those officers if they take this case."
Gallagher said he wanted to invite McConville's eldest daughter, Helen, her husband, Seamus McKendry, and other family members to Omagh to discuss how to build a case.
Sinn Féin said on Monday night that Adams and one of his key lieutenants, Bobby Storey, had received death threats since Adams's release from police custody. However, republican dissident sources have told the Guardian they have no interest in targeting any senior Sinn Féin figures.
There were reports earlier in the day that the authorities in Northern Ireland believe there is insufficient evidence to prosecute Adams either in regard to the McConville killing or over alleged IRA membership.
As the McConville family pondered their next options, Gallagher told the Guardian that all was not lost for them in their struggle for justice.
He and fellow Omagh campaigners spent a decade pursuing the alleged Real IRA leadership through the courts. Although no one was convicted in a criminal court over the bombing, Murphy and Daly, along with two other men, were held responsible in the families' first civil action.
The men were ordered to pay £1.6m in damages to the victims' families, but two of the defendants, Liam Campbell and Real IRA founder Michael McKevitt, are appealing against the findings at the European court of human rights in Strasbourg.
McKendry welcomed the offer of support from those who took the groundbreaking Omagh civil action.
"It makes sense to listen to the Omagh families, learn from their legal experience as we build our case. I can confirm that over the last seven days we have been talking to senior legal people about the possibility of taking a civil action in relation to Jean's murder.
"Whatever is decided by the authorities over a possible criminal prosecution, Helen and I are serious about going down the civil action route and support for that is growing," he said.
After his release from the Police Service of Northern Ireland's serious crime suite in Antrim, Adams described the allegations that he ordered McConville's murder and secret burial as a "sinister, malicious, untruthful campaign".
Any civil action in a Northern Ireland could become a forum to hear the Boston College tapes, which include an already published testimony from former IRA icon and hunger striker Brendan Hughes, who first made on-the-record allegations against his former friend Adams.
The deputy director of the Public Prosecution Service, Pamela Atchison, has to make the decision whether or not to prosecute Adams in a criminal court. Her boss, Barra McGrory, had to pass over the decision to her because he was once Gerry Adams' solicitor.
Adams denied he threatened Michael McConville who had earlier said that Adams told him "if you release the names I hope you are ready for the backlash" - which McConville said he took to be a threat. Responding to the allegations, the Sinn Féin president said the claim was untrue but that he understood why the McConville family were angry at Republicans over the mother-of-10's notorious 1972 killing.
He suggested that the controversy over his suspected role in the killing played into the hands of "negative, sinister elements" who oppose the peace process.
Asked by CNN's Christiane Amanpour about Michael McConville's claims, he said: "First of all I never said that. I have tried my best...
"I can understand absolutely, given what Republicans have done to their family and their mother, I can understand absolutely why the McConville family feel the way that they feel, so let me say that as a matter of record."
McConville was one of 16 IRA victims whom the organisation 'disappeared' by burying in secret. It was only in 1999 that the IRA finally admitted they had killed her and her remains were found on a County Louth beach four years later by a man out walking his dog.
