Court gives man seven years for possessing pipe bomb

A Dublin man has been jailed for seven years by the Special Criminal Court today for having a pipe bomb in Ringsend last year.

Noel Mooney (aged 29), of Leo Fitzgerald House, Dublin 2 pleaded guilty in July to the unlawful possession of an improvised explosive device –a pipe bomb- at Sean Moore Park, Ringsend on May 8 last year.

He also pleaded guilty to the unlawful possession of two shotgun cartridges at waste ground at Sean Moore Park on the same date.

The court heard that gardaí had kept Mooney under observation and when they approached him at Sean Moore Park he resisted arrest and a taser gun was used before he was arrested.

When gardaí searched an area of scrubland where Mooney had been they found a viable pipe bomb and components for making pipe bombs.

Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said that the possession of pipe bombs was an offence that was becoming "very common" before the court.

The court sentenced Mooney to seven years for possession of the pipe bomb and seven years for the possession of the shotgun cartridges and ordered the sentences to run concurrently.