IRA accused made no response to certain material questions, trial hears

A 44-year-old man from Scotstown, County Monaghan, has pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army at the Special Criminal Court. The trial heard that gardaí conducted a planned operation on 25 November 2015 following a briefing by senior officers at Monaghan garda station. Detective Garda Alan O'Connor observed the accused leaving a car and walking up a laneway near derelict houses at Knockatallon, after which Detective Sergeant Gerry Doherty arrested him. During interviews conducted under the Offences Against the State Act, portions of which were read in evidence, the accused denied being a quartermaster in the organisation but declined to answer questions regarding a specific laneway, shed access, storage of items, and use of houses as operational bases. He was cautioned that failure to answer material questions could result in adverse inferences. The trial continues before Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy and two other judges.