Court jails man for breaching bail conditions

The Special Criminal Court today jailed a suspected member of the IRA after finding the accused deliberately breached his bail conditions.

Jailing Joseph Lynch, aged 60, of Beechgrove Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick, Mr Justice Diarmaid O’Donovan, presiding, said the court was satisfied "it was a serious" and deliberate breach which the court could not ignore.

The court refused defence requests to allow Mr Lynch to remain on bail as a "humanitarian gesture" to enable him to care for his wife, who is seriously ill.

Mr Justice O’Donovan said it is a fact that when people go to jail their families suffer. There was clear evidence, he noted, that Mr Lynch was a committed republican who "has a long term relationship with Republican Sinn Fein".

The accused was one of eight men arrested last year in the biggest single arrest operation against dissident republicans in recent history. Mr Lynch was granted bail subject to strict conditions which prevented him from associating with any of his co-accused or any person convicted under the Offences Against the State Act.

Yesterday, garda witnesses gave evidence that they found Mr Lynch in the company of Mr Christy Dunne, a co-accused and Mr Colm Maguire, who was released recently after serving a sentence for paramilitary type offences.

Gardai told the Special Criminal Court they spotted the men among a group of seven in a public house on October 16 last, the night of the Ireland v Switzerland soccer international.

The accused denied he was associating with Mr Dunne or Mr Maguire and said he was there to watch the match.

However, Mr Justice O’Donovan said the court was satisfied that the part of the pub where the group was sitting was out of view of the television. He suggested that the group deliberately sat there because it was also out of range of the pub’s CCT cameras.

Mr Lynch is charged with membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on December 17 last.

He was one of eight men arrested when gardai investigating the activities of republican groups raided a house in Shanabooley Road, Ballinanty, Limerick on December 17 last.

The court remanded Mr Lynch in custody until his trial on January 30 next.