Laurence Murphy and Ray Kennedy denied IRA membership charges

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

Laurence Murphy and Ray Kennedy pleaded not guilty to charges of membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Oglaigh Na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA. The charges relate to 6 March 2013.

Kennedy was also charged with an act intending to pervert the course of justice by destroying a mobile telephone SIM card in the State on 6 March 2013.

The proceedings were reported on 31 October 2019. The Special Criminal Court was hearing a recording from a Garda surveillance device planted in a fast-food restaurant.

The prosecution alleged that six people, including Murphy, attended an insider’s meeting or “debrief” at KFC in Charlestown Shopping Centre on 7 March 2013 about events the previous day. Peter Butterly was shot dead outside The Huntsman Inn in Gormanston, Co Meath, on 6 March 2013.

A National Surveillance Unit officer said he saw Murphy’s car at the KFC on 7 March 2013, observed six men at a table and later saw Murphy, Frank Murphy and a third man leave the upstairs area. The three-judge court spent nearly two hours listening to the recorded conversation.

The trial was due to resume the following Wednesday before Ms Justice Tara Burns, presiding, and Judges Sarah Berkeley and Michael Walsh.