Innocent Victims’ United said the new film could hurt those who had relatives killed by the Provos.

Hollywood superstar Liam Neeson risks becoming a poster boy for the IRA, terror victims have claimed.

The Co Antrim-born actor is set to co-produce a new film based on a book about an IRA sniper.

A Mad And Wonderful Thing, the debut novel by Mark Mulholland, is to be filmed by leading Irish filmmaker Parallel Films and co-produced by Neeson.

When the book was first published, the 62-year-old said: “I thought it excellent. Deeply satisfying and moving.

“I also think that sufficient time has passed since the Good Friday Agreement to, at last, have a novel that goes inside the head of one of the Troubles protagonists and hear the pros and cons of the conflict [to take up arms or not] told in an original and exciting way.”

But a victims’ group has hit out at the decision and urged Neeson to reconsider his role in the movie.

Innocent Victims’ United said the proposed film hurts those who had relatives killed by the Provos.

Liam Neeson in his latest action flick (Image: 2013 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)
In a statement, the group added: “In our view the novel written by Mark Mulholland was a very sanitised version of the IRA’s campaign of sectarian terror.

“Liam Neeson was granted the Freedom of the Borough of Ballymena back in 2013 and enjoyed cross-party and cross-community support.

“He should not allow himself to be a poster boy for a ruthless republican ideology which inflicted murder upon men, women and children, Protestant, Catholic and dissenter in advance of its’ own ‘ourselves alone, separatist agenda.”

Set in Dundalk, Mulholland’s home town, the novel which could prove controversial tells the story of a fictional IRA sniper Johnny Donnelly who falls in love with a girl called Cora.

In 1999 his youngest brother was arrested along with two fellow members of the Real IRA, charged with conspiracy to cause explosions in London and sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Neeson and his fellow Northern Irish actor James Nesbitt previously appealed for the IRA and other republican organisations to give fresh information on the “Disappeared” of the Troubles. They backed demands from victims’ families for further information leading to the recovery of their loved ones’ remains.