The trial of a former IRA gunrunner and Sinn Féin ard comhairle member, who is charged with an attempted murder almost 30 years ago, has been postponed after he became ill and underwent heart surgery.

Gerry McGeough is charged with IRA membership in 1975 and the 1981 attempted murder of UDR man Sammy Brush. He is the first republican to be tried with historical crimes since the Good Friday agreement.

McGeough, who had a heart attack last year, became ill hours after his trial reopened last Monday. That day the court had heard excerpts from his 1998 book Defenders, a novel about IRA, loyalist and British Army killings in Co Tyrone. The novel forms part of the prosecution case.

McGeough said: "Later that night, I developed strong chest pains. I was taken by ambulance to Craigavon Area Hospital. They carried out various tests. An angiogram showed I needed three new stents inserted in my coronary arteries."

His trial has been postponed for six weeks. McGeough lives in Brantry, Co Tyrone, with his Spanish wife Maria and four young children. Since his hospitalisation, a pressure group, Justice for the McGeough family, has been set up. It is lobbying local political parties, US politicians and is hoping to meet Cardinal Sean Brady.

Spokesman Conor Daly said: "There is growing anger at what Gerry McGeough is going through. We thought the Good Friday Agreement meant the past was the past and we can't understand why he has been singled out for prosecution. The soldiers who murdered 13 unarmed civilians on Bloody Sunday aren't being prosecuted.

"We are looking at this from a human point of view. The immense pressure Gerry McGeough is under is taking its toll on his health. This case is also having a negative effect on the peace process for many in our community."