Cork man convicted of IRA membership

A Cork man who told gardaí he had gone to Monaghan for “a drinking session” and did not know there was half-a-tonne of fertlizer in the van he was driving, has been found guilty of membership of the IRA.

Martin McHale (53), with an address at Blackwater Grove, Togher, Cork, County Cork, had pleaded not guilty at the non-jury Special Criminal Court to membership of an unlawful organisation, styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on November 2nd, 2013.