An IRA membership case against a Cork man has been dismissed at the Special Criminal Court.

Prosecuting counsel Vincent Heneghan BL told the court on Wednesday the State was tendering no further evidence in the case.

The decision came after the court ruled on Tuesday that Kevin Power (39) had been unlawfully arrested.

Mr Power, with an address at Railway Street, Passage West, County Cork, had pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful organisation within the State styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA, on December 19th, 2011.

Previously, the court heard that Mr Power had been arrested on January 19th, 2011, on suspicion of IRA membership and was released without charge.

He was arrested again on December 19th of the same year, also on suspicion of IRA membership.

Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding, said that the second arrest was unlawful because Mr Power had previously been arrested for IRA membership and should not have been rearrested for the same offence on a different date without a warrant.

Section 30 (A) of the Offences Against the State Act (Amendment Act 1998) Act 1939 states that a person who is arrested on suspicion of having committed an offence under the Act, and who is subsequently released without charge, cannot be arrested again for the same offence without a warrant.