Court refuses Lisa Smith bail application but agrees to hear sentence appeal in October

While Smith intends to appeal her conviction, Mr Justice Birmingham said the court would be willing to hear the sentence appeal before the conviction appeal

Former Irish soldier Lisa Smith became the first person to be convicted in an Irish court of an Islamic terrorist offence committed abroad. File photo: Niall Carson/PA

The Court of Appeal refused to hear a bail application on Wednesday afternoon for Lisa Smith, a former Irish soldier who was sentenced just five days ago for joining Isis when she travelled to Syria in 2015.

However, the three-judge court did agree to take the "unusual step" of first hearing an appeal against the severity of her 15-month sentence when the courts return from their summer break on October 4, before an appeal against her conviction is heard.