IRA accused found in Hiace van packed with bags of fertiliser, trial hears

A 52-year-old Cork man accused of IRA membership was discovered in a Hiace van loaded with bags of nitrogen fertiliser during a garda patrol in Monaghan town on November 1st, 2013, the Special Criminal Court heard. Martin McHale, with an address in Togher, Cork, has pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army. Detective Garda Emmett Ryan told the court he observed the blue van parked at a filling station in an area monitored for dissident activity. When questioned, McHale declined to identify the van's owner, stating only that it belonged to a friend. Subsequent garda checks revealed the vehicle was registered to neither McHale nor his companion. A search of the van uncovered numerous bags of nitrogen fertiliser. The detective expressed awareness that nitrogen fertiliser is a component of homemade explosives. Intelligence records indicated McHale had been observed in the company of individuals previously convicted of IRA membership. The trial, before Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy presiding with two other judges, continues at the Special Criminal Court.