was succeeded by Mick Timothy who expanded the newspaper from 12 to 16 pages. Timothy died suddenly in January 1985 and was replaced by Rita O'Hare. The headquarters of An Phoblacht was subsequently named after Timothy. During this period An Phoblacht focused strongly on alleged collusion between the British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries such as the UVF. In response the paper came under attack from the UVF and other Loyalist hit squads. In the 1980s, top Irish government officials questioned senior ministers as to why the paper had not been banned under the Offences Against the State Act 1939 and suggested that the publication could be classed a "treasonable document or seditious document" and thus make it illegal to send it through the post. The officials also suggested blocking the publication's application for official newspaper status. The Attorney General at the time dismissed the move. State papers also revealed that during a meeting on 10 January 1984, the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Jim Prior and Irish Minister for Justice Michael Noonan discussed the possibility of banning the publication but recognised that "if one title was stopped, the same paper could appear under a new title". Ulster loyalist attacks In 1991 a group calling itself the Loyalist Retaliation and Defence Group launched a spate of attacks against newsagents who sold An Phoblacht and also targeted AP/RN delivery drivers. On 10 August 1991, a 33-year-old shopkeeper (James Carson) was shot dead in his shop on the Falls Road, Belfast. This was followed by the shooting death of a 66-year-old shopkeeper (Lawrence Murchan) on St James's Road on 28 September 1991. Both were targeted for selling An Phoblacht in their newsagents. On 12 December 1992 AP/RN worker Malachy Carey was shot dead by loyalist gunmen in Ballymoney. In January 1991 the RUC also raided the offices of An Phoblacht in Belfast seizing computer equipment and disks. Letter bombs were also frequently sent to An Phoblacht by loyalist paramilitaries in the 1990s. In one incident on 4 January 1994 a bomb disguised as a book was carried outside of the offices by AP/RN book reviewer Aengus Ó Snodaigh where it exploded a short time later, injuring two members of the Irish Defence Forces bomb disposal unit as they attempted to defuse it. In January 2018, loyalist Winston Churchill Rea was charged with encouraging the murder of "persons working in shops