First sitting of second Special Criminal Court

The second Special Criminal Court is due to be assigned cases for its first sitting in Dublin today.

The second court, consisting of Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy of the High Court, Judge Sinéad Ní Chúlacháin of the Circuit Court and Judge Gerard Haughton of the District Court, will sit at the Criminal Courts of Justice in Parkgate Street.

It will be assigned cases for trial by the original Special Criminal Court, which is dealing with a call-over list.

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald established a second non-jury court last October and said it would deal with the backlog of cases from the Special Criminal Court.

Currently, the earliest available date for trial is April 2018. All cases currently before the court are connected with Garda investigations into so-called dissident republican activity.

Last October the Government appointed seven judges for a new Special Criminal Court under legislation that was introduced in 2004 but never brought into effect.

However, last February Ms Fitzgerald said the court would be operational by April, following a public outcry over increased criminal activity in Dublin, including the Regency Hotel attack when members of one criminal gang carried out a fatal shooting.

The establishment of a second non-jury court became an election issue when Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams voiced his party’s opposition to it.

Ms Fitzgerald signed the rules of the court last month and the new court has been assigned its own registrar.

The three-judge court sits without a jury and was set up in 1972 by then minister for justice Des O’Malley at the height of the Northern Troubles.

It dealt mainly with activities of the Provisional IRA and INLA, but also heard trials connected with the activities of John Gilligan’s drugs gang.