A Tipperary man told the Special Criminal Court yesterday that the front door of a house came down on top of him when gardaí raided a house in Limerick where they suspected a meeting of the Continuity IRA was taking place.
Mr Robert McNamara, who is treasurer of the Republican Sinn Féin cumann in Tipperary, said: "I was nearly the first member of Sinn Féin killed by a door in history." Mr McNamara was one of seven men arrested when gardaí raided a house in Shanabooley Road in December 2001. He told his counsel, Mr Louis O'Brien SC, that he had been attending a Republican Sinn Féin meeting in the house.
He said that the meeting had just finished when he thought he heard shots and then bangs on the door. "I thought it was hooligans and I was walking towards the door and the door came in on top of me," he said.
Mr McNamara said he was grabbed by the gardaí and thrown into the front room and then arrested.
He said that references on an envelope found on him to "stabbing" and "lies" referred to backbiting going on inside the organisation.
He said that a reference to "loose talk" on the envelope was also a reference to backbiting. Mr McNamara denied that he was a member of an illegal organisation.
The court has heard evidence from Chief Supt Gerard Kelly that he believed each of the accused was a member of an illegal organisation on December 17th, 2001.
The prosecution has claimed that the chief superintendent's evidence was corroborated by a note found during a search of a house in Limerick which referred to firearms.
The trial resumes next Tuesday.