Four in court on IRA charge
Four suspected members of the Real IRA arrested in a weekend raid on a hotel in Co Meath today appeared before a court in Dublin.
Liam Campbell, aged 32, of Dundalk, Co Louth, Declan Carroll, aged 24, of the Raheny area of Dublin, Robert Brennan, also aged 32, of Ballymun, Dublin, and Sean Mulligan, aged 50, from Louth, were charged before a sitting of the Special Criminal Court with membership of an illegal organisation, styling itself the IRA, on July 29.
The four accused were remanded in custody to appear again before a sitting of the court next Wednesday, August 8, when they are expected to apply for bail.
There was tight security at the non-jury court for today’s half-hour hearing.
They were arrested on Sunday in a room at the Neptune Beach Hotel, in Bettystown, by Irish Special Branch detectives investigating dissident republicans.
Two of the men, Campbell and Carroll, were on bail having already faced similar charges before the court.
Campbell, a Dundalk farmer, is alleged to be a leading member of the dissident group and was due to stand trial on membership charges in October.
He was freed on bail by the state’s High Court in December on condition he did not associate with any persons with convictions relating to illegal organisations or with anyone connected with criminal activity relating to illegal organisations.
Meanwhile, Carroll is due to stand trial in November on the same charge.
Sunday’s arrests were the latest development in a crackdown in the state on the activities of dissident republicans linked to two paramilitary groups.
These are the Real IRA - which claimed responsibility for the 1998 Omagh car bomb which killed 29 people and injured more than 200 - and the Continuity IRA.
