Continuity IRA prisoner found dead in jail
Gardaí were investigating today after a dissident republican terrorist was found hanged in his cell in the high security Portlaoise Prison.
The Continuity IRA man from Limerick was found dead by prison officers at around 11am.
A spokesman for the Irish Prison Service the 35-year-old inmate was discovered hanged in a metal wardrobe in his single cell hours after prison staff had unlocked his cell door. He was found by another prisoner.
The spokesman said medical staff were called to the cell but the man was pronounced dead.
Gardaí were also notified and are carrying out an investigation.
The Governor of Portlaoise Prison T.J. Walsh has also launched an inquiry into the death.
The Limerick man had been jailed for five years in February for firearms offences after gardaí raided a terrorist training camp in the Comeragh Mountains in Waterford.
Rifles, shotguns, ammunition, balaclavas, combat gear and a makeshift firing range were uncovered in the swoop. Eight other men found at the camp were also jailed for between four and six years.
The men were in possession of two lawfully held rifles with telescopic sights, one lawfully held shotgun and one unlawfully held sawn-off shotgun which had been stolen in a burglary in 1999, as well as balaclavas, combat gear and equipment used for target practice.
