Ex-garda's son brought hat to IRA-accused's home

07/12/2006 - 16:53:36
The son of a retired Garda took to the stand in the Special Criminal Court today to say he had brought a Garda hat into the house of a father of 10 accused of IRA membership while playing with the accused's son during Halloween.

Cormac Comiskey was giving evidence in the trial of Art Sherwin (aged 55), Ballinagappa Road, Clane, Co Kildare, who denies membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA, on March 14, 2005.

Mr Comiskey told defence counsel Mr Diarmaid McGuinness SC that he had brought the Garda hat into the Sherwin house one Halloween and had left it there with the accused's son, with whom he was friends while at school.

Mr Sherwin told the court under oath that he had never seen the hat before gardaí questioned him about it following a raid on the house as part of an investigation into subversive activities.

Mr Sherwin also denied 10 alarm clocks found in his house were intended for use in bombs.

Under cross-examination by Mr Tom O'Connell SC he admitted he should have told gardaí he travelled with a man convicted of possessing explosives to the North. He said he didn't do so because the man was going to meet a "lady friend" and he "didn't want to cause him any trouble".

He also said the reason why he failed to tell gardaí about a woman he met during a trip to the North was because she had recently been through mental stress and he didn't want to risk her being interrogated.

The trial at the three-judge court continues tomorrow.