A dublin man was jailed for four years by the Special Criminal Court yesterday for membership of the "Real IRA".
Robert Brennan (33), Sillogue Road, Ballymun, Dublin, was found guilty on Tuesday of membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA, on July 29th last year. He was also convicted of the unlawful possession of a stun-gun at the Neptune Beach Hotel, Bettystown, Co Meath, on the same date. He had denied the charges.
The court heard during a two- day trial that Brennan was one of four men arrested after an operation by the Special Detective Unit and members of the Crime and Security Branch directed against the "Real IRA". He was seen by detectives carrying a hold-all bag into the Neptune Beach Hotel. When detectives raided a room in the hotel they found a stun-gun in the bag. Brennan and three other men were arrested during the Garda operation.
Det Insp Diarmuid O'Sullivan said Brennan was a member of the "Real IRA" since its formation by former members of the Provisional IRA who left the organisation after an IRA army convention in Co Donegal in 1997. He said that Brennan's presence at the Neptune Beach Hotel was for the purpose of "enhancing the operation" of the "Real IRA".
Yesterday, Mr Justice Barr, presiding, said: "The court has no doubt that the so-called 'Real IRA' are intent on destroying by violent means major political, economic and social progress which has been painstakingly achieved in Northern Ireland."
The judge said the court accepted that the "Real IRA" was a dissident group of terrorists, most of whom broke away from the Provisional IRA in 1997.
The court jailed Brennan for four years on the membership charge and gave him a concurrent three-year sentence for possession of the stun-gun.