Five Dundalk men have been jailed by the Special Criminal Court for possession of firearms for an unlawful purpose.
The charges relate to a planned punishment beating in the town.
Dalton McKevitt (27) St Aubin's Road, Eoin Quigley (29) Oakland Park, Tony O'Hare (41) Marian Park, Alan Browne (36) Mountain Court and Niall Farrell (26) Cedarwood Park all pleaded guilty to possession of a 12-gauge shotgun and 9 mm semi-automatic pistol for an unlawful purpose at Nicholas Street, Dundalk on January 5th, 2002.
They were each sentenced to three and a half years, to run from January 5th last.
The state did not proceed with a charge of membership of an illegal organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise the IRA on the same date.
The court heard that that the five accused were at a briefing session at the Nicholas Street house prior to carrying out a punishment beating when armed gardaí burst in. The weapons were in a sports bag on the floor. Gardaí also recovered a quantity of ammunition, a nail bar, hammer five balaclavas and seven gloves.
Det Superintendent Peter Maguire, Special Detective Unit, told the court that during questioning, Tony O'Hare told gardai the men intended to "inflict a bit of damage" of a gang of anti-social youths around the Coxes Demense area of Dundalk. The accused had claimed the youths were "breaking into old people's homes", and were into drugs and causing damage.
The superintendent also told the court that when arrested, Niall Farrell had a "hammer stuffed down the front of his trousers".
Mr Justice Diarmaid O'Donovan presiding, said the court needed to "send out a very strong message that this type of thuggery would not be tolerated". Nobody, he said, "can take the law into their own hands".
He said the five had a common purpose of "evil intent". This was very obvious by the weapons found by gardaí which could cause "very serious harm".