Explosives found after railway station arrests, court told

Gardai found explosives in an apartment after three men were arrested in a car close to a railway station, the Special Criminal Court in Dublin was told today.

One of the men, 22-year-old Darren O’Donogh, of Glenmore Park, Muirhevnamore, Dundalk, was today freed on IR£6,300 bail despite garda objections.

O’Donogh and twins Kenneth and Alan Patterson, 31, of Griffith Parade, Finglas, have each been charged with the unlawful possession of an explosive substance - an improvised time and power unit - at McEntee Avenue, Dundalk, Co Louth, on Saturday.

The Patterson brothers were remanded in custody and O’Donogh on bail until July 25.

Detective Superintendent Michael Hoare objected to bail for O’Donogh and said he believed he would continue to assist and take part in the activities of the Real IRA.

He said the organisation had carried out several outrages, including the Omagh bombing in 1998, in which 29 people were killed, as well as attacks in Britain.

Mr Hoare said O’Donogh was seen parking his car near the railway station in Dundalk and that his two co-accused were seen getting off the train and going to his car.

One of them was carrying a hold all bag and the three men were seen looking at something in the car.

O’Donogh’s car was signalled to stop by the gardai about three to four hundred yards from the station, but he failed to do so and gardai blocked the road and forcibly removed the three men from the car.

When the car was searched, a time and power unit was found in a holdall and two balaclavas in the car. The time and power unit had two time settings, one for 60 minutes and one for 120 minutes.

Gardai also found a number of plastic boxes with switches attached to them, which could be used as incendiary devices, Mr Hoare said.

In follow up searches at a number of addresses in Dublin, gardai found explosives and a number of time and power units similar to the one found in the car in Dundalk.

Mr Hoare said he believed the time and power unit was to be used to cause an explosion inside or outside the jurisdiction.

But Mr Justice Diarmuid O’Donovan, presiding, said O’Donogh had not been charged with membership of an illegal organisation and had a constitutional right to freedom.

The court freed him on his own bond of £300 and an independent surety of £6,000 and ordered him to report three times a week to Dundalk Garda Station.