A DUBLIN man arrested on explosives charges in the run-up to the State visit of Prince Charles last year has been jailed for five and a half years.
Donal Ó Coisdealbha (25) – a stepson of Jim Monaghan of the ‘Colombia Three’ – admitted being a member of a dissident republican organisation.
During Tuesday's sentencing at the Special Criminal Court, Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, presiding at the three-judge, non-jury court, said that the evidence against the man was "significant" and even "overwhelming".
She also criticised as "puzzling" a letter written by Independent TD Maureen O Sullivan to the courts on behalf of the Real IRA member.
Ó Coisdealbha, from Abbeyfield, Killester, was arrested during a Garda operation which recovered explosive devices, improvised rockets, detonators, timing units and Semtex, six days before the visit of Prince Charles and his wife Camilla to Ireland in May 2015
He was held as part of a Garda investigation into the activities of dissident republicans.
He had been under surveillance for five months and was seen meeting convicted IRA members in a bar near Dublin airport and in Dublin city centre.
He was also seen buying cling film and driving to a house at Harbour Court in Wexford.
When the house was subsequently searched, four improvised rockets, a booster tube, five phones, Semtex, homemade explosives, a timing power unit, a broken circuit board, a cord of cortex and two detonators were found.
Officers from the Special Detective Unit then searched his locker at NUI Maynooth and discovered a timing power unit and a circuit board, which fitted together with those found in Wexford.
Detective Inspector William Hanrahan had told the court it was clear from the conversations recorded, about a bike and detonators having been obtained for Ó Coisdealbha, that preparations were well advanced.
He was told that it was his operation and they were ready to go.
Gardaí believed that the operation was to take place around 19 May 2015 when Prince Charles was visiting Ireland.
There was a reference to a timer with a 14-minute delay and the blame to be given to a different IRA organisation and this caused gardaí to move in on 13 May - six days before the visit.
On Tuesday, Ms Justice Kennedy referred to a letter written by Maureen O'Sullivan TD, dated from July this year, which expressed some dismay at the length of time O'Coisdealbha had spent in custody.
The judge referred to a "puzzling" expression in Deputy O'Sullivan's letter and said the court could only surmise that the content in the testimony came about in circumstances where the writer was unaware of O'Coisdealbha's decision to plead guilty.
Ms Justice Kennedy went on to say that among the aggravating factors was O'Coisdealbha's use of his intellectual abilities and educational skills to plan events.
Mitigating factors were his early plea of guilty, his lack of previous convictions, his remorse and his educational abilities.
His defence counsel said his guilty plea was a public acknowledgement of his wrongdoing.
The sentence was backdated to May 30 last year.
