Local TD Clare Daly and Wexford TD Mick Wallace, both of whom spent a short time in prison last week

A man arrested in May on IRA and explosives charges was refused bail for the third time at the Special Criminal Court today.

Three TDs, Mick Wallace, Clare Daly and Maureen O'Sullivan, were among seven proposed independent sureties on the man's bail application and were prepared to offer sureties of €5,000 each, the court heard.

Donal O'Coisdealbha (23), who has been in custody for seven months, told the court that the TDs are "friends of the family".

Mr O'Coisdealbha, of Abbeyfield, Killester, Dublin 15, is charged with membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hÉireann otherwise the IRA within the State on May 13th, 2015.

Mr O'Coisdealbha is also charged with possession of a component part of an improvised explosive device namely a time and power unit also known as a TPU at “the personal storage locker under the control of Donal O'Coisdealbha at Protector Life Sciences, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Co Kildare” under such circumstances as to give rise to a reasonable suspicion that he had not got it in his possession for a lawful purpose on May 13th, 2015.

The court heard today that the accused man has applied for bail on four previous occasions, twice at the Special Criminal Court and twice at the High Court.

The State objected to Mr O'Coisdealbha's bail application.

Detective Inspector Anthony Lenehan, of the Special Detective Unit, told the three-judge, non-jury court that there was an objection to bail on grounds of the "seriousness of the charge".

Detective Chief Superintendent John McMahon told the court there was an objection to bail under Section 2 of the Bail Act. The section allows a Chief Superintendent give evidence that the refusal of bail is necessary to prevent the commission of a serious offence.

Mr Justice Butler said that the court refused the accused man's application "with great reluctance".

Online Editors