Two jailed for firearms possession

Two Northern men who admitted having two rifles and ammunition in Dublin in 2003 were jailed by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today.

Malachy Maguire (aged 40), of John Martin Gardens, Newry, Co Down, and Desmond Mc Cabe (aged 43), of Merchant Court, Newry, pleaded guilty earlier this year to the unlawful possession of two bolt-action .22 inch rifles and 11 rounds of ammunition at Swords Road, Whitehall, Dublin, on September 13, 2003.

Maguire was jailed for four years and McCabe was jailed for three and a half years, for what Mr Justice Josephn Finnegan, presiding, said were offences of the utmost seriousness.

The court deferred McCabe’s sentence until March 15 next year after hearing that his wife died last May and that he has three children aged between 11 and 15 to look after. Mr Justice Finnegan said that the sentence would be deferred to allow him to make provision for his family.

Detective Superintendent Diarmuid O’Sullivan of the Special Detective Unit told the court that gardaí found the rifles and ammunition in the boot of Maguire's Mercedes car after he travelled to Dublin and was kept under surveillance before being stopped on the Swords Road.

They found the rifles and ammunition wrapped in a white sheet inside a plastic bag in the boot of the car.

He said that McCabe was the back-seat passenger in the car, which had travelled from Northern Ireland to Dublin and was returning back to the North when detectives from the Emergency Response Unit swooped on it.