Judge refuses bail for IRA suspect to go on holiday
A Co Donegal man who booked a family holiday in Spain the day he was arrested for IRA membership was told by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin today that he could not travel on the trip.
The court heard that Philip McGavigan had paid €3,148 for the two-week holiday for nine family members in Spain for two weeks in June. He booked the holiday just hours before his arrest on February 2.
McGavigan (aged 49), of Coney Burrow, Lifford was charged on February 5 with membership of an unlawful organisation, the IRA, on February 2.
He was granted bail on an independent surety of €20,000 and on condition that he surrender his passport and reside in Lifford.
Today his counsel Mr John Quirke BL applied for a variation in the bail conditions to allow McGavigan to travel to Spain for the holiday on June 8. He said that Mc Gavigan had paid €3,148 for the holiday for nine family members.
However, Detective Inspector Kevin English, Letterkenny, objected to the bail variation and said that if he was allowed to travel to Spain gardaí would not be in a position to monitor his movements.
Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding at the three-judge, non-jury court, said that there is a very real presumption of innocence and it is accepted that bail conditions are an imposition on a person’s liberty.
The judge said that in this case a package had been put together to ensure various things, the most relevant being that McGavigan would turn up for his trial.
He said that McGavigan had booked the holiday on February 2 and was arrested that evening and was in custody until February 10, when he was granted bail.
The court accepted that he had paid a deposit and had paid the balance on March 16. The judge said that it must have been in his mind when granted bail that he booked a family holiday.
He said that bail was set to ensure that McGavigan will turn up for his trial and if that balance was upset it would create a new situation and the court therefore refused to grant the bail variation.
