Brendan Hope jailed for three years over cardboard bomb

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Brendan Hope was sentenced to three years in prison at the Special Criminal Court on 11 May 2016, backdated to 31 July of the previous year. Mr Justice Paul Butler presided with Judge Alison Lindsay and Judge Flann Brennan.

He had pleaded guilty to the possession charge. The proceedings were reported on 11 May 2016.

The charge concerned possession at St Matthews Park, Ballymahon, Co Longford, on 24 June 2014. The device included a 71mm cardboard tube, a 12-gauge shotgun cartridge and shotgun propellant powder, along with an igniferous fuse, clingfilm and a hair bobbin.

Det Sgt William Hanrahan told prosecuting counsel Ronan Kennedy BL that officers had been briefed about an investigation into IRA activity. He said the house was under surveillance and used to make explosive devices for the IRA. The court heard that Hope left the house and entered the passenger side of a van. After it was stopped, Det Sgt Dermot Lawlor saw what he believed was an improvised explosive device in the passenger-side footwell.

In his first interview, Hope admitted possessing and making the device. He said he had made it at home in Mullingar to test whether it would work, likening it to a firework. He denied making it for the IRA and said he had forgotten he was carrying it.

Gardaí told him their search of his home had uncovered no evidence that a device had been made there. He subsequently changed his account, saying he had found it in a laneway behind the Longford house five minutes before leaving and picked it up to discover what it was.

Hope had no previous convictions. William Hanrahan agreed with defence counsel Bernard Condon SC that the crude device had relatively limited capacity within its category. Mr Condon cited Hope’s early guilty plea and time in custody in mitigation. The court accepted that the cardboard device was less lethal than the pipe bombs it usually encountered.