IRA accused found in Hiace van packed with bags of fertiliser, trial hears

A 52-year-old Cork man accused of IRA membership was discovered in a Hiace van loaded with bags of nitrogen fertiliser during a garda patrol in Monaghan town on November 1st, 2013, the Special Criminal Court heard. Martin McHale, with an address in Togher, Cork, has pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army. Detective Garda Emmett Ryan told the court he…