Gardai believed IRA firearms and explosives were being stored at ex-SF councillor's home

During the trial of Gerard Hutch at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, Inspector Padraig Boyce gave evidence concerning the grounds for obtaining a search warrant on the Donegal home of Jonathan Dowdall, a former Sinn Féin councillor. The inspector stated that gardaí had sought the warrant based on suspicions that the property was being used to store firearms and explosives on behalf of the IRA. The search was executed on 9 March 2016, approximately one hour after three AK-47 assault rifles were intercepted near Slane in County Meath. The weapons had been found in the boot of a vehicle driven by Shane Rowan, a convicted IRA member. The two-day search of Dowdall's Donegal residence yielded no firearms or explosives, though a USB key was recovered and later analysed. The court heard that a tracking device had been placed on Dowdall's Toyota Land Cruiser, a detail that would later become subject to scrutiny by the defence team. Concerns were raised about whether such surveillance breached legal boundaries, particularly given evidence that the vehicle had travelled to locations in Northern Ireland. Hutch, aged 59, from Clontarf, Dublin, denies murdering Kinahan Cartel member David Byrne during a boxing weigh-in at the Regency Hotel on 5 February 2016. The trial has heard surveillance evidence placing Hutch and Dowdall together on multiple occasions in the weeks following the shooting, and recordings allegedly capturing discussions referencing "three yokes" said to refer to the assault rifles used in the fatal attack. Dowdall had previously received a suspended sentence in connection with a 2015 false imprisonment and threatening incident. His involvement in the Regency case emerged through surveillance operations and garda investigations spanning the months following Byrne's death.