A Real IRA leader has been found guilty of directing the activities of a terrorist organisation for trying to organise a bomb attack during the visit of Prince Charles to Ireland two years ago.
Seamus McGrane, 63, from Little Road, Dromiskin in Co Louth, was also convicted of IRA membership at the Special Criminal Court. He will be sentenced next month.
He had pleaded not guilty but had been secretly recorded by gardaí discussing explosives and a target of military significance in a pub in Dublin.
McGrane had met IRA operative Donal Ó Coisdealbha a number of times in the Coachman's Inn early in 2015 to plan a bomb attack during the state visit of Prince Charles in 2015.
However, gardaí installed listening devices and McGrane was recorded discussing strategy and experiments with explosives, as well as his involvement in training people in the IRA.
He instructed Ó Coisdealbha to "reactivate the science graduate" to get advice on explosives.
He told him to contact "motorbike man" to collect the explosives, to clean out the cylinder and return the bike, not to dispose of it.
McGrane also told Ó Coisdealbha the target was to have "military significance" and referred to someone "coming on the 19th" - the same day Prince Charles arrived in Ireland.
When gardaí searched McGrane's home and land linked to him in Louth and Wexford, they found what the judge described today as "a veritable arsenal of weapons and explosives".
Ó Coisdealbha followed through on McGrane's directions and was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison last December.
