A former member of the Defence Forces, caught transporting a bomb across the Border on the day the Belfast Agreement referendums votes were counted last year, was jailed for six years by the Special Criminal Court in Dublin yesterday. Patrick McDonagh (35), a market trader and father of four children, of Hoey's Lane, Dundalk, pleaded guilty to having 938 lb. of improvised explosive mixture, a booster tube and detonating cord with intent to endanger life or to enable another person to endanger life at Carrickaneena, Co Louth, last May 23rd.
The court heard that McDonagh was the driver of a stolen BMW car, which was stopped 80 yards from the Border by members of the Emergency Response Unit after a high-speed chase on an unapproved road leading to the village of Jonesboro in Co Armagh.
Det Chief Supt Michael Finnegan said members of the Emergency Response Unit noticed a blue BMW which appeared to contain a heavy load driving northwards and they followed it.
There was a chase along an unapproved road at speeds of up to 70 m.p.h. before the ERU jeep got in front of the BMW.
McDonagh tried to run across the Border and there was a violent struggle before he was arrested. A second car which had been following the BMW reversed at high speed but was blocked by a Garda car. Gardai found 501 lb. of an explosives mix, with a booster tube and detonating cord containing Semtex in eight bags in the boot of the BMW, and 437 lb. of the mix in seven bags in the boot of the second car.
The chief superintendent said the explosives found in the BMW were "far in excess" of the amount used in the Omagh bombing last August. He said McDonagh told gardai he had been asked to drive the car "as a favour" and gardai accepted he was not a bomber himself.
McDonagh was born in Manchester but his parents had returned to Dundalk shortly afterwards. He served in the Army between 1980 and 1983, worked as a market trader in Jonesboro and had no previous convictions. Chief Supt Finnegan said gardai believed a splinter republican group was planning to detonate a bomb in Northern Ireland that night to coincide with the results of the referendums.
Mr Justice Barr, presiding, said the explosives were found on a day of "great historical significance" and it appeared that a subversive group which did not support the agreement intended to detonate a bomb in the North.