Man denies any part in illegal organisation

A Co Clare man arrested at an suspected Continuity IRA meeting in Limerick denied at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today that he was ever a member of an illegal organisation.

Patrick Kenneally told the court that over a period of 40 years he had been a member of Clann na hEireann, Official Sinn Fein, the Irish Republican Socialist Party and Republican Sinn Fein.

But he denied that he had ever been a member of the armed wings of the different political organisations.

Kenneally, in defence evidence, told his counsel Mr Donagh Mc Donagh SC that he had attended a meeting at a house in Shanabooley Road in Limerick on December 17, 2001 after he was contacted by Des Long, the Vice President of Republican Sinn Fein.

He said that when he was preparing to leave the house he heard a number of shots from outside.

"Somebody said get down on the floor and I went down on one knee. The next thing the door came in on top of us," he said.

Kenneally said that he thought he heard "about seven or eight shots"' before the door was broken down by the gardaí who were raiding the house.

He said that after the gardaí entered the house he was pushed into the front room and knocked back on top of the radiator.

Asked by Mr Mc Donagh if firearms, safe houses or beatings had been discussed at the meeting, Kenneally replied: "No, we don't discuss things like that."

He told Mr Mc Donagh that he had never been a member of the IRA. "I never have been. I abhor violence of all sorts."

"I'd be completely opposed to violence. There has got to be another way. This has always been my opinion," he added.

The court has heard evidence from Chief Superintendent Gerard Kelly that he believed each of the accused was a member of an illegal organisation on December 17, 2001.

The prosecution has claimed that the Chief Superintendent's evidence was corroborated by a note found during a search of a house in Limerick which referred to firearms.

The court has heard that the seven accused were arrested when a large party of gardaí raided a house in the Shanabooley Road area of Limerick in December 2001 where gardaí suspected a meeting of the Continuity IRA was taking place.

It was the 43rd day of the trial of seven men who have pleaded not guilty to a charge that on December 17, 2001, within the State, they were members of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise the IRA, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann.

They are Des Long, aged 62, Vice President of Republican Sinn Fein, of Shannon Banks, Limerick, Patrick Kenneally, aged 59, of Crusheen, Co Clare, Patrick O' Shea, aged 54, of Sir Harry's Mall, Limerick, Gerard "Ger" Brommell, aged 43, of Rostura Crescent, Woodview Park, Limerick, Robert McNamara, aged 59, of St Michael's Avenue, Tipperary, Joseph ''Tiny'' Lynch, aged 62, of Beechgrove Avenue, Ballinacurra Weston, Limerick and Christopher Dunne, aged 28, of Donnellan Buildings, Rosbrien, Limerick.

The trial continues tomorrow.