Louth man awaits decision on 'IRA membership' charge
A verdict is expected Friday in the case of a Co Louth man accused of membership of an illegal organisation.
The Special Criminal Court heard closing submissions today in which prosecution counsel Mr Edward Comyn SC said that "clear inferences" could be drawn from the evidence before the court to suggest that 52-year-old Sean Mulligan was a member of an unlawful organisation.
Mr Mulligan, of Carnalughogue, Louth village, has pleaded not guilty to membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann, otherwise the IRA on July 29 last year.
Mr Comyn pointed to the failure of the accused to explain if entries in a notebook found at his house referred to an operation at Derrylin, when the RUC discovered a mortar bomb and missiles and arrested a number of men.
Combined with the circumstances of his arrest along with three others in July 2001 by detectives at the Neptune Beach Hotel in Bettystown, Co Meath during which a stun gun was recovered, Mr Comyn said the inferences would point to the guilt of Mr Mulligan.
However, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC for the defence said the state’s case was primarily "flawed" because any inferences were being drawn on the evidence of Chief Superintendent Michael Finnegan.
Chief Supt Finnegan, who is in charge of the Louth Meath Division, told the court that he believed Mulligan was a member of an illegal organisation on July 29 last year.
He said that Chief Supt Finnegan’s refusal to explain what his opinion was based on meant he was speculating or making an assumption. He said it was "a nonsense" to say that the prosecution evidence was not undermined in any way and added that it was not safe to draw inferences from the circumstances of Mr Mulligan’s questioning.
"Any question concerning membership was answered [by the accused]," Mr Hartnett continued.
He also claimed that it had never been proved if the documents, including the notebook, were created by Mr Mulligan, or were ever in his possession.
He said the stun gun was not brought into the Neptune Hotel by the accused and that it was "a red herring" to suggest that he knew it existed or what it was.
The three judges of the Special Criminal Court will deliver their verdict Friday morning at 11am.
