Coogan tells court IRA and INLA have 'little time for each other'

Author and historian Tim Pat Coogan told the Special Criminal Court today that the IRA and the INLA have "little time for each other".

Mr Coogan said that, at times, the two organisations would be "daggers drawn" and, despite the ceasefire, there were still personal animosities between them.

The author of a definitive history of the IRA said that the paramilitary world was "dangerous and conspiratorial".

He was giving evidence as an independent expert in the trial of three men who have denied membership of the INLA last year.

The three men were arrested in February last year by gardaí investigating a plot to kidnap a Cork businessman.

Edward McGarrigle (aged 43), Melmont Gardens, Strabane, Co Tyrone, Neil Myles (aged 54), of no fixed abode, and John McCrossan (aged 47), Ballycoleman Estate, Strabane, Co Tyrone have pleaded not guilty to membership the INLA on February 22 last year.

It is the prosecution's case that the four men were involved in a plot to commit a crime at the home of a Cork businessman.

Mr Coogan told Mc Garrigle's counsel Mr Brendan Nix SC that people in paramilitary organisations would be aware of "the players" in other organisations.

He said that they would have extensive knowledge of each others movements and they would know who the "players" were and their families.

Closing submissions in the trial will continue tomorrow.