The Special Criminal Court has ruled that the initial detention of four men accused of IRA membership was unlawful.

The Special Criminal Court has heard details of the arrests of four men accused of IRA membership today.

A car occupied by four men accused of IRA membership was chased and stopped by a Garda patrol in Co Donegal last year, the Special Criminal Court has heard today.

The Special Criminal Court in Dublin was today shown a video of three masked men, including one carrying an AK 47 rifle, who told BBC journalists they were the Real IRA and ``capable of waging war against the British state’.

The trial of four men arrested during a Garda operation into suspected dissident activity in Donegal last March has heard that images of “men in balaclavas, camouflaged jackets and holding an AK47” were found during a search of a Transit van.

Four suspected Real IRA men were arrested following a tip-off that the dissident republican terror group put on a show of strength for TV cameras, a court heard today.

Four Derry men today pleaded not guilty at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin to IRA membership last March.

The Special Criminal Court has fixed bail conditions for one of four men arrested during a garda operation into the activities of dissident republicans in Co Donegal last March.

Four Derry men arrested during a Garda investigation into dissident republicans in Co Donegal have been further remanded in custody as the defence waits for a book of evidence to be produced.

Four Derry men charged with IRA membership were remanded in custody by the Special Criminal Court today.

FOUR men were last night charged with membership of the IRA at a special sitting of the Special Criminal Court in Dublin as part of a renewed Garda crackdown on paramilitary activity in Donegal.

Four men charged over alleged dissident republican activity were tonight remanded in custody at Dublin’s special criminal court.