Four charged in connection with explosives find

Three men were charged with possession of explosives and a fourth was charged with being a member of the IRA when they appeared at a special sitting of the Special Criminal Court tonight.

Joseph Fee, 39, Seamus McKenna, 48, and Gregory Trainor, 37, were all charged at the Special Criminal Court in connection with an explosives find in Co Louth.

The explosive was discovered at an outhouse in Inniskeen on Friday.

The three men were arrested in Thornfield, Inniskeen, after the find and were taken to garda stations in the area near the Northern Ireland border before being taken to Dublin today.

Fee, of Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, McKenna, of Dundalk, Co Louth, and Trainor, of Armagh city, were all charged under Section 4 of the Offences Against the State Act.

The fourth man, 24-year-old Eamonn Matthews of Newry, Co Down, appeared at the same hearing on a charge of being a member of an illegal organisation styling itself as the IRA, otherwise the Irish Republican Army, on 12 June 2003.

All four men were remanded in custody to reappear at the same court on Friday.

None made any reply when given the initial charges.

There was a high security presence as they were escorted away from the court sitting.