David Gallagher sentenced to eight years with two suspended for possessing explosives

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

David Gallagher was sentenced to eight years in prison, with two years suspended, at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on 13 October 2015. Mr Justice Paul Butler presided. The proceedings were reported on 13 October 2015.

He pleaded guilty to possession of an explosive substance. The offence occurred at Kilcurry, County Louth, on 25 May 2014.

The charge listed PETN and RDX, an adapted 50-litre beer keg, 50kg of ammonium nitrate homemade explosive, an improvised detonation cord, an improvised steel booster tube and an improvised time and power unit.

The sentence was backdated to 20 August 2014. The two-year suspended portion was suspended for a period of two years.

Gareth Mulley had been tried and convicted of the same offence and sentenced to ten years in prison at the Special Criminal Court in July 2015.

The report said detectives observed an object being transferred from David Gallagher’s van to the boot of a red Volkswagen Passat. Gardaí found a keg bomb when they searched the Passat.

Detective Sergeant Padraig Boyce, of the Special Detective Unit, said the bomb was armed, completed and ready to be moved, and would have caused serious injury or death to somebody standing nearby.

He agreed with Michael O’Higgins SC, defending, that David Gallagher had very little history in this activity, reasonable rehabilitation prospects and a lesser role than Gareth Mulley.

David Gallagher told the three judges he did not intend to become involved again in republican military activity. In sentencing, they considered his lack of previous convictions of any significance, his lesser role accepted by gardaí and what Mr Justice Paul Butler called his “credible promise” to avoid future involvement. The judge said his application to transfer from Portlaoise Prison to Castlerea Prison supported that declaration.