Dublin ? Britain’s sudden decision to support a lawsuit against Libya by Irish Republican Army victims raised hopes Monday that thousands maimed or bereaved by IRA bombs might one day receive compensation.

Libya admits it shipped hundreds of tons of weaponry to the IRA in the mid-1980s, most critically the plastic explosive Semtex at the heart of the outlawed group’s deadliest bombs. Lawyers say they expect the regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi to pay $16 million to each person on their growing list of IRA victims.

“The fact is, if the Libyans hadn’t provided the IRA with the Semtex, my son would be alive today,” said peace activist Colin Parry, one of more than 150 litigants.

The case was first filed in U.S. courts in 2006 but is currently in limbo. Parry’s 12-year-old son and a 3-year-old boy were killed when the IRA bombed a shopping district in Warrington, northwest England, in February 1993.