Man driving van with bags of fertiliser inside denies IRA membership

Lawyers for a Cork man, who told gardaí he had gone to Monaghan for “a drinking session” and did not know there were 10 bags of nitrogen fertiliser in the van he was driving, have asked the Special Criminal Court to find him not guilty of IRA membership.

Martin McHale (53), with an address at Blackwater Grove, Togher, County Cork, has pleaded not guilty to membership of an unlawful organisation, calling itself the IRA on November 2nd, 2013.

The prosecution in the non-jury Special Criminal Court trial of Mr McHale say he was involved in “nefarious activities associated with membership of the IRA”.

The three-judge court has heard that Mr McHale was seen in a blue Hiace van parked in the forecourt of Connolly’s filling station in Monaghan town on the night in question.

Mr McHale told gardaí during interviews that he had gone to Monaghan for “a drinking session” and did not know there were 10 bags of fertiliser in the back of the van he was driving.

In her closing speech to the court on Thursday, prosecuting counsel, Anne-Marie Lawlor, asked whether it was reasonable that two men – Mr McHale and his companion – would leave Cork at 6.30pm in pursuit of a drink on the other side of the country.

Would they go in a stranger’s van “owned by who knows who” with a half a metric tonne of fertiliser in the back, Ms Lawlor asked.

Would they leave Cork at a time in the evening knowing that their thirst would not be quenched by midnight, she asked.

Entire account

Ms Lawlor said the entire account given by Mr McHale to the gardaí was false, misleading and deliberately so. The actual responses were a complete and abject failure to respond to material questions.

She said no booking had been made in the Four Seasons Hotel and Mr McHale had no clothes, no mobile phone or personal affects.

She said a glove in the van had the DNA of Mr McHale, which required sustained contact according to a forensics expert, and a residue of fertiliser was found on the same gloves.

Ms Lawlor highlighted his decision not to tell the gardaí who owned the car nor who supposedly made it available to him. “All I’m telling you is I’m not telling you,” she quoted Mr McHale as saying from memos of Garda interviews.

‘Ludicrous suggestion’

There were contradictions in his account and the “ludicrous suggestion” that he drove a diesel-powered van belonging to somebody else because diesel was cheaper than petrol used by his own car.

Ms Lawlor said there was evidence of his association with three individuals who had convictions recorded against them in the Special Criminal Court.

Furthermore, there was opinion evidence from Assistant Garda Commissioner Michael Finn who told the court that he believed Mr McHale was "100 per cent" a member of the IRA.

Apart from one question, as to whether he would name the owner of the van, Blaise O’Carroll SC, said his client engaged with the gardaí. Mr O’Connell said his client didn’t want to get his friend in the trouble that he was experiencing.

Nothing of an incriminating nature was found on McHale’s person. But his companion had notes, a mobile phone with no data and was clearly the person controlling events, Mr O’Carroll said.

He said Mr McHale was “foot loose and fancy” for what he described as a “piss up”.

In relation the bags of fertiliser, Mr O’Carroll said there was nothing to indicate anything untoward. From the driver’s seat, one would see only timber and other bags.

Ms Justice Isobel Kennedy, presiding, alongside Judge Gerard Griffin and Judge Gerard Haughton, said the court would give judgment on February 22nd.