Man loses IRA membership conviction appeal
A man from the North today lost his appeal against his conviction for membership of an illegal organisation following a garda operation directed against the Continuity IRA.
Eamonn Matthews (aged 26), Dublin Road, Killeen, Newry, Co Down was sentenced to three years and nine months in December 2004 after being convicted by the non-jury Special Criminal Court of membership of an illegal organisation.
The court convicted Matthews of membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA, on June 13 2003.
The Special Criminal Court was told that Matthews was one of two men arrested after a major garda operation in north Co Louth against dissident republicans, involving the Emergency Response Unit and the National Surveillance Unit.
The court heard that gardai found two other men manufacturing home-made explosives at a farm shed at Thornfield, Co Louth. They also found traces of home-made explosives at another farm several miles away, where they found a grinder with traces of explosives.
Matthews had been seen the previous day driving a jeep and going to a local firm where he rented a cement-mixer, the trial was told.
The court found that Chief Supt Michael Finnegan's belief that Matthews was a member of an illegal organisation was supported and corroborated by Matthews's failure to answer material questions, his association with the cement-mixer used to manufacture the explosives and his association with established IRA members and persons convicted of subversive crime.
Matthews' lawyers had challenged the conviction on the grounds that the Special Criminal Court had wrongfully admitted into evidence videos and memoranda of interviews conducted by the gardaí with Matthews, that the court had wrongfully found that certain evidence was capable of corroborating Chief Superintendent Finnegan's belief of Matthews's membership and that the trial had not been fair.
The conviction was also challenged on the grounds that the judgment of the trial court was internally inconsistent.
Today Ms Justice Fidelma Macken, presiding at the three judge appeal court, rejected the appeal on all grounds.
