Two Sinn Féin members have been jailed for four years each at the Special Criminal Court on charges of Provisional IRA membership.
The court heard gardaí found a list of TDs, including three former justice ministers, at the home of the one of the men, Niall Binead. Binead is a former secretary of a south Dublin Sinn Féin cumann and an associate of the Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South Central, Mr Aengus Ó Snodaigh.
Niall Binead, also known as Niall Bennett (35), Faughart Road, Crumlin, Dublin, and Kenneth Donohoe (26), Sundale Avenue, Mountain View, Tallaght, Dublin, were each convicted of membership of the IRA on October 10th, 2002.
The court yesterday ordered the four-year sentences to date from November 18th last, the date of their conviction.
Mr Justice O'Donovan, presiding, said that insofar as reference was made to politicians during the trial, the court was satisfied that there was nothing untoward in relation to the activities of the politicians. The judge said the court had also entirely ignored media commentary after its conviction of the two men.
The judge added that the two men had not been convicted solely on the word of a Garda chief superintendent, as had been reported in the media, but were convicted when that belief was taken collectively with their failure to answer material questions when interviewed by the gardaí, with documentation found at the homes of the two men and with suspicious activity at Corke Abbey in Bray on October 10th, 2002.
The judge said that two men's conduct when interviewed by gardaí was "insolent and provocative" and that they had no regard to the fact that the gardaí were merely doing their duty.
Det Supt O'Sullivan earlier agreed with Mr George Birmingham SC, prosecuting, that the politicians whose names were found in Binead's home were going about "their normal and lawful activity and there was no suggestion of improper conduct".
The superintendent told the court that Binead and Donohoe had been convicted at Kilmainham District Court in November 1999 for public order offences. They had been arrested in the Kevin Street area after they had arrived with a crowbar while gardaí were questioning people involved in drugs.
They were sentenced to six months, which was replaced by community service on appeal.
Cross-examined by Mr Peter Finlay SC, for Binead, Det Supt Sullivan agreed that the Provisional IRA has been on ceasefire.
In his plea for mitigation, Mr Finlay said that the offence was committed two years ago and since then there has been a major act of decommissioning by the Provisional IRA and "we are told that we are on the eve of a final act of decommissioning".
"Let the record tell us that Niall Binead is a man who is not engaged in paramilitarism," Mr Finlay added. "He is a strong republican and will remain a strong republican. He and his fellow republicans in Sinn Féin have ambitions to make a lasting contribution to this State."
The trial was told that the men were arrested after gardaí arrested five other men following suspicious activity around three vehicles in Corke Abbey, Bray, Co Wicklow, on October 10th, 2002.
Inside a transit van, gardaí found four men, a sledgehammer, two pick-axe handles, eight bags of ties, radios, a black balaclava, rubber gloves and a yellow fluorescent jacket with the word "Garda" labelled on it. In a Nissan car with false number plates, they found a blue flashing beacon, a Long Kesh baseball cap, a stun gun, a canister of CS gas and a roll of black tape. Binead's thumbprint was found on the roll of black tape in the Nissan, and another car involved in the incident at Bray belonged to a woman who is Donohoe's partner.