DPP challenge to Edward O’Brien’s IRA membership sentence fails

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

The Court of Appeal upheld Edward O’Brien’s 16-month prison sentence for IRA membership on 14 February 2020, refusing the Director of Public Prosecutions’ challenge that it was unduly lenient.

O’Brien, of Hazelcroft Road, Finglas, Dublin, was convicted of membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA, on 8 August 2015. He was among five people found guilty following a trial at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin in June 2018.

The Court of Appeal also upheld the sentences of the four others. Seán Hannaway received five years and six months and David Nooney three years and nine months for IRA membership on 8 August 2015. Kevin Hannaway received three years and nine months and Eva Shannon four years for assisting the interviewing of people involved in IRA-organised criminal activities at Riverwood Park, Castleknock, on 7 and 8 August 2015.

Kevin Hannaway, Seán Hannaway and Eva Shannon had appealed on the grounds that their sentences were too severe. The DPP also challenged Nooney’s sentence as unduly lenient. Both DPP reviews and the three sentence appeals were refused.

Giving judgment, Mr Justice John Edwards said each accused had participated in an IRA inquiry involving a high level of planning and organisation. The court also heard a request from Kevin Hannaway’s counsel to suspend the balance of his sentence because of his exceptional circumstances, but found no error in principle in the sentence.