Two Dublin men, charged with membership of the Continuity IRA, were currently being held in lawful detention, the High Court ruled yesterday.
Mr Justice Abbott said he was satisfied Mr Martin Kelly (43), of Westpark, Artane, and Mr William Clare (35), of Adare Park, Coolock, had been lawfully remanded in custody by a Special Criminal Court order to Portlaoise jail.
Both men had mounted a constitutional challenge to the legality of their detention. They were detained initially only on Garda suspicion of their being members of an illegal organisation.
Mr Justice Abbott told Mr Tony Sammon SC, counsel for Mr Kelly and Mr Clare, he was satisfied that since the constitutional challenge had been made, events had overtaken the proceedings in that the two had been formally charged and remanded by the Special Criminal Court.
"I have nevertheless allowed the most intensive inquiry be made into all matters raised by the applicants and I am satisfied they are being detained in accordance with law," he said.
Det Supt Peter Maguire had told counsel for the State, Mr Micheál P. O'Higgins, that he had headed an investigation into certain matters in Dublin which had ended in the arrest of Mr Kelly and Mr Clare.
"I was leading an operation against the IRA at the time of both arrests, having received information that certain members of the Continuity IRA were involved in racketeering, demanding money with menaces from business people in Dublin city," he told the court.
He believed funds raised from a protection racket were channelled towards the financing of an illegal organisation and used for terrorist activity in Northern Ireland.
Det Supt Maguire said it was suspected that Mr Kelly and Mr Clare were active members of the Continuity IRA and that they werealso active in fund-raising for the illegal organisation, which was the only one not on a ceasefire, he said.
He said that although both had been previously arrested and released without charge following a swoop on a hotel in Limerick where gardaí believed a meeting of the Continuity IRA was taking place, the second arrest was not connected with that event.
The application before the court had been adjourned from Thursday after Mr Sammon and his instructing solicitor, Mr Michael Finucane, had declined to be physically searched by gardaí at the entrance to the courtroom.
Both men attended court yesterday following a change of tactics by gardaí, who had overnight been supplied with hand-held electronic scanning equipment, which removed the need to physically frisk people entering the court.