A Co Louth man who was making a bomb in his shed has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.
Philip McKevitt (62), of Aghaboys, Mount Pleasant, Dundalk, was convicted in December by the Republic's non-jury Special Criminal Court of the possession of explosive substances in May 2010.
Conan Murphy (29), son of Co Louth republican Colm Murphy who was found civilly liable for the 1998 Omagh bombing, pleaded guilty to the same offence at the start of the trial and was jailed for six years.
A detective told the court that fully loaded, the bomb would have weighed 500lb.
The house at Aghaboys was observed for four days in May 2010, during which McKevitt was seen with Murphy in the yard and a garda heard an angle-grinder being used in the shed.
On May 22nd, at 7pm, officers entered and McKevitt was seen coming from the direction of a trailer.
Inside were two adapted gas cylinders, with sections cut from the top of both, strapped to a wooden frame in the trailer.
In the boot of a car beside the shed there were 52 500g bags of glucose.
Also seized was a roll of wire, 377 metres long and recently spray-painted green for camouflage.
Investigating detectives said this was the command wire, normally used for detonating an explosive device from a distance.
A match for McKevitt's DNA was found on the handle of one of the gas cylinders.
During interviews he said he did not know the trailer and gas cylinders were in his shed.
McKevitt was previously convicted of the offence in 2012 but the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the verdict and directed a re-trial.
Presiding judge Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy today said mitigating factors were that McKevitt was working under the command of others and had some difficulties with alcohol at the time.
The sentence was backdated to March 22 last year.
