Michael Connolly acquitted of IRA membership after retrial

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

Michael Connolly was acquitted of IRA membership by the Special Criminal Court in a retrial reported on 12 April 2021.

The court said the original conviction involved a grave defect in the administration of justice and constituted a miscarriage of justice.

It found the prosecution could not rely on an Assistant Garda Commissioner’s belief evidence as independent from the investigation, citing possible double counting between an intelligence file and the Book of Evidence. The court also said circumstantial evidence tended to implicate Connolly in transporting two improvised explosive devices for a criminal purpose on 16 December 2014, but stressed this did not establish that he was innocent of the crime alleged.