A Co Clare man arrested at a suspected Continuity IRA meeting in Limerick denied at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday that he was ever a member of an illegal organisation.
On the 43rd day of the trial of seven men who have pleaded not guilty to being members of the IRA, Mr Patrick Kenneally (59), Crusheen, Co Clare, said that over 40 years he had been a member of Clann na hÉireann, Official Sinn Féin, the Irish Republican Socialist Party and Republican Sinn Féin. He denied however that he had ever been a member of the armed wings of the different political organisations.
Mr Kenneally told his counsel, Mr Donagh McDonagh SC, that he had attended a meeting at a house in Shanabooley Road in Limerick on December 17th, 2001, after he was contacted by Mr Des Long, vice-president of Republican Sinn Féin.
When he was preparing to leave the house he heard a number of shots from outside. "Somebody said get down on the floor and I went down on one knee. The next thing the door came in on top of us," he said.
He thought he heard "about seven or eight shots" before the door was broken down by gardaí who were raiding the house. After the gardaí entered the house he was pushed into the front room and knocked back on top of the radiator.
Asked by Mr McDonagh if firearms, safe houses or beatings had been discussed at the meeting, Mr Kenneally replied: "No, we don't discuss things like that."
He told Mr McDonagh he had never been a member of the IRA. "I never have been. I abhor violence of all sorts. I'd be completely opposed to violence. There has got to be another way. This has always been my opinion," he added.
The court has heard evidence from Chief Supt Gerard Kelly that he believed each of the accused men was a member of an illegal organisation in December 2001.
The trial continues today.