TD says letter not endorsing use of physical force

Independent TD Maureen O’Sullivan said she was not endorsing “the use of physical force” when she wrote to the Courts Service asking that the period of time a dissident republican was spending on remand be cut.

Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy described as “puzzling” a letter sent by the Dublin Central TD in advance of Donal Ó Coisdealbha’s bail hearing last year.

In the letter, Ms O’Sullivan described Ó Coisdealbha, arrested on explosives charges in the run-up to the royal visit last year, as a “fine, intelligent, articulate, and hardworking young man”. She said she knew his mother and told RTÉ radio yesterday he “would like to put this [his crime] behind him when he finishes his sentence”.