A pensioner who put a bomb on a bus bound for Dublin and made hoax bomb threats during Queen Elizabeth’s State visit to Ireland, has lost an appeal against his conviction, which focused on Irish language rights.
Lawyers for Dónal Billings (67), whose trial at the non-jury Special Criminal Court was heard in both Irish and English, claimed their client’s Irish language rights were “destroyed” during his trial.
Billings, with an address at St Bridget’s Court, Drumlish, Co Longford, was found guilty of possessing an explosive substance at Longford railway station car park on May 16th, 2011.
He was found guilty of making false reports on May 16th and May 18th, 2011, that bombs had been placed at Busáras and Sinn Féin’s headquarters in Dublin and that two mortars were set for Dublin Castle.
He was also found guilty of making a false report on May 20th that two bombs had been placed in the toilets at Cork airport. Queen Elizabeth was visiting Ireland at the time.
Sentencing him to eight-and-a-half years imprisonment, Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding, said Billings was “perfectly entitled to hold a low opinion” of Queen Elizabeth and her visit to Ireland but was “not entitled to express such an opinion by engaging in criminality”.
In a judgment made available in both Irish and English on Tuesday, President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice George Birmingham said the appeal was based on two issues, namely sufficiency of evidence and Irish language rights.
He said the Court of Appeal had not been persuaded that the evidence against Billings was insufficient to ground a conviction on any count.
Secondly, he said the court had not been persuaded that Mr Billings’ Irish language rights were disrespected to the extent that his conviction should be quashed.
Counsel for Billings, Martin Giblin SC, had argued that his client’s Irish language rights were “decimated” and “destroyed” during the trial process.
Advancing his arguments in Irish, which were translated into English for the court, Mr Giblin said Billings wanted to be tried by three judges who had an ability in Irish as far back as 2011.
He said the State, including the Special Criminal Court and the DPP, had a duty to show respect to the Constitution and to personal constitutional rights. He said constitutional rights couldn’t be denied by questions of procedure.
He said the defence applied for a transcript of proceedings that recorded everything that was said in both Irish and English during the trial. A transcript was provided in the English language only, even though it was within the State’s abilities to provide one in Irish also, counsel submitted.
Mr Giblin further submitted that the Explosive Substances Act 1883, under which Mr Billings was convicted, had never been translated into Irish.
Mr Justice Birmingham said the Explosives Substance Act was passed by the Westminster Parliament. The fact it had not been translated into Irish was not the result of “inertia” but a conscious decision had clearly been made not to translate pre-1922 statutes.
He said Billings had no right to any transcript during the trial, be it in English or Irish or any other language. Ordinarily, no transcript is made available during the majority of trials conducted in Ireland.
He said there was no evidence of any disadvantage having been experienced by Billings and the fact a transcript was made available in the English language only did not render his trial unfair or unsatisfactory.
Mr Justice Birmingham said the arrangements put in place by the Special Criminal Court were reasonable in the circumstances. Everything that happened in English was translated into Irish and everything said in Irish was interpreted into English for everybody’s benefit.
He said the DPP may carry out its functions in the official language of its own choice and was “not compelled to adopt the preferred official language of the accused person”.
Mr Justice Birmingham, who sat with Ms Justice Marie Baker and Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy, dismissed the appeal.