Man arrested in lead up to Prince Charles’ visit seeks bail

A man arrested on IRA and explosives charges in the lead up to Prince Charles’ official State visit will make a renewed bail application later this month.

Donal O Coisdealbha (23), of Abbeyfield, Killester Dublin 15, was charged with membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise Óglaigh na hÉireann, otherwise the IRA within the State on May 13th 2015.

Mr O Coisdealbha was also charged with possession of a component part of an improvised explosive device namely a time and power unit also known as a TPU at “the personal storage locker under the control of Donal O Coisdealbha at Protector Life Sciences, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Co Kildare” under such circumstances as to give rise to a reasonable suspicion that he had not got it in his possession for a lawful purpose on May 13th, 2015.

Counsel for Mr O Coisdealbha, Dean Kelly BL, told the non-jury Special Criminal Court on Tuesday that his side intended to make a renewed bail application.

Bail had been refused in May, Mr Kelly said.

The refusal was appealed to the High Court and upheld.

Mr Kelly said part of the material on which Mr O Coisdealbha was refused bail “may be other than was first thought”.

His case will be that the transcription of an alleged telephone call involving Mr O Coisdealbha was “transcribed in a certain way” and should be transcribed “in a different way”.

There wasn’t the first suggestion of any wrongdoing, Mr Kelly said, but it was central to the refusal.

Circumstances had changed “enormously”.

Counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions, Vincent Heneghan BL, said it was part of the reason for refusal not the central part.

Mr Justice Tony Hunt, presiding alongside Judge Alison Lindsay and Judge Cormac Dunne, listed the bail application for Tuesday July 21st next.