A London court has sentenced three men from County Louth to jail terms of 30 years apiece for attempts to buy weapons and explosives on behalf of the Real IRA.
Thirty-eight-year-old Fintan O'Farrell, from Carlingford, 42-year-old Declan Rafferty also from Carlingford, and 44-year-old Michael McDonald, from Dundalk, were sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court today.
The three men had been caught by British security service agents posing as arms dealers from Iraq.
They received sentences of 30 years each for conspiracy to cause explosions and twelve years each for charges under the Terrorism Act to run concurrently.
A spokesperson for the 32-Counties Sovereignty Movement told RTÉ News she was shocked by the length of the sentence, considering the three men had changed their pleas to guilty just before the trial was due to start.
A large group of friends and relatives of the three men who had travelled to England for today's hearing would not comment after the verdict.
