The Court of Criminal Appeal has dismissed appeals by five Dublin men, described by a Garda chief superintendent as members of the Dublin brigade of the Provisional IRA, against their convictions for membership of an illegal organisation.
During the trial gardaí said they found two pickaxe handles, a lump hammer, three portable radios , cable ties, balaclavas and a fake Garda jacket in a van. Two of the men were dressed in fake Garda uniforms.
The men were each jailed for four years by the Special Criminal Court on February 21st last year for IRA membership on October 11th, 2002.
They are Thomas Gilson (25), of Bawnlea Avenue, Jobstown, Tallaght; Patrick Brennan (42), of Lindisfarne Avenue, Clondalkin; Seán O'Donnell (33), of Castle Drive, Sandymount; John Troy (26), of Donard Avenue and Stephen Birney (32), of Conquerhill Road, Clontarf.
After conviction, Chief Supt Peter Maguire told the Special Criminal Court that all the men were members of the Provisional IRA, were attached to that organisation's Dublin brigade and were answerable directly to its leadership.
The men had appealed, claiming the Special Criminal Court did not have jurisdiction to try them.
This argument was based on allegedly defective procedures employed in dealing with the men after their initial arrest and which led to them being brought to the Special Criminal Court.
Chief Supt Philip Kelly, the head of the Garda Special Branch, had told the trial that he believed each man was an IRA member.
Their lawyers had argued that the "belief evidence "of Det Chief Supt Kelly should not have been admitted in evidence and submitted there was no corroboration of that evidence.
Dismissing the appeals yesterday, Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman , presiding at the three-judge court, said the challenge to the jurisdiction of the Special Criminal Court was "without merit".
The court also found that the belief evidence of Det Chief Supt Kelly was "amply corroborated" by the failure of the men to answer material questions and by general evidence presented in the case.
"A group of men, some of whom actually bore the name of an unlawful organisation tattooed on their persons, were gathered together in the suspicious and indeed sinister circumstances established in evidence with the paraphernalia described. In that context they refused to answer clearly the relevant questions even when the consequences of their doing so were pointed out to them," the judge said.
During the 24-day trial, the court heard the men were arrested after an off-duty Special Branch detective, Det Garda Michael Masterson, noticed suspicious activity around three vehicles - a Nissan Almera car, a Nissan Micra car and a van.
The court heard gardaí recovered a large quantity of Sinn Féin posters, including election posters for Sinn Féin TD Aengus Ó Snodaigh, from the Nissan Almera car in which they also found a stun gun, a CS gas canister, a blue flashing light and a beacon.