The civil action being taken by some of the families who lost relatives in the 1998 Omagh bombing has begun to hear evidence from members of the gardaí in a Dublin court.
The case has moved from the High Court in Belfast to Dublin to hear evidence from up to 30 gardaí at the request of the families' legal teams.
A member of the Garda Surveillance Unit told the court how he had observed what he described as a possible Real IRA meeting at a house in Oaklands Park, Dundalk.
There he observed two men, Michael McKevitt and David Rupert.
Mr McKevitt is one of the men being sued by the Omagh families.
The families are seeking damages against five men who they believe are responsible for the attack.
Detective Sergeant Finbar Healy was asked by Mr McKevitt's legal team if he had kept the original dictaphone and computer records from his surveillance. He replied that he had not.
The special hearing chaired by District Court Judge Conal Gibbons opened this morning.
Mr Justice Declan Morgan who is hearing the case in Belfast was in court in Dublin to observe proceedings today.
In a symbolic move Mr Justice Morgan will preside over tomorrow morning's hearing, which is to allow the defendant's legal teams to raise any objections to the plaintif's questions.
Earlier, lawyers for Mr McKevitt, queried whether their client would be able to object to questions put by the plaintiff in this jurisdiction.
Mr Michael O'Higgins SC said some of the questions could be extremely prejudicial to his client.
Mr Justice Gibney said his role was simply to facilitate the taking of evidence and any objection to the questions would have to be raised in Belfast.
No one has been convicted for the bombing but Mr McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy, Seamus McKenna and Seamus Daly are named on the lawsuit.
All five deny any involvement in the bombing, which killed 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins, in August 1998.
The civil action will continue for three days before returning to Belfast.
The hearing has been moved to Dublin under an EU directive which allows evidence to be heard in other jurisdictions.
The case resumes at 10.30 am tomorrow.
