Landmark case collapse in trial of Louth man accused of IRA membership

The Special Criminal Court trial of a Louth man accused of membership of the IRA has become the first trial to collapse following a recent Supreme Court ruling on a key piece of anti-terrorist legislation.

No evidence was heard in the trial of Peter Butterly (aged 34), of Cortown, Togher, Dunleer, who had pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA on October 8, 2010.