A 63-year-old man has been jailed for four and a half years after he pleaded guilty to manufacturing homemade explosives that were so dangerous they could not be handled or weighed by bomb disposal experts.
The Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee, Co Kerry was told that Ivan Gilder made the explosives from household products available in hardware shops and on the internet.
Ivan Gilder lived alone in an adapted horsebox, off the grid and without electricity or services.
The location, at Gearha North, Blackwater, was isolated and rural, around 15m from Kenmare in Co Kerry.
Following a tipoff, members of the Garda Special Detective Unit, responsible for the investigation of threats to State security, raided Ivan Gilder's home on 27 March 2021, and seized what was described as an Aladdin's cave of homemade explosives, as well as firearms and ammunition.
Some of the explosives were so dangerous, they could not be handled or weighed by members of an army bomb disposal team who were deployed to the scene.
Ivan Gilder told gardaí he made the explosives himself, from household products like peroxide available in hardware shops and on the internet.
The Scottish national was described in court as having a keen interest in bomb-making as a hobby. His father was in the explosives division of the British Army.
His counsel told the court he knew how dangerous the explosives were, but was blithely unaware how illegal it was to possess them.
He was manufacturing the explosives on site, mixing or boiling the compounds.
He had enough of one type of explosive, erythritol tetranitrate or ETN, to make two car bombs.
ETN has no military or industrial application, but it is widely used as an improvised explosive.
Ivan Gilder also pleaded guilty to possession of a pipe bomb, a 12-gauge over and under shotgun, a .22 rifle and ammunition. The guns had been used for target practice.
At his sentencing hearing, Judge Sinéad Behan noted Gilder's guilty plea.
She said the circumstances were peculiar. She said Gilder appeared to be somewhat removed from reality. She said he was co-operative with gardaí, but the substances he manufactured posed a real danger and the expertise he possessed was alarming.
Judge Behan said the explosives involved were of grave risk to Gilder himself and to the public.
She said he was not involved with any military or other organisation.
She pointed to a report by the Probation and Welfare Service which, she said, indicated that he had a worrying lack of insight into the seriousness of the offences. It said he had not shown remorse and little victim awareness.
She jailed Gilder for six years, with the final year and a half suspended for five years, on condition that he engage with South Kerry Community Mental Health Services.
At an earlier court hearing, Gilder's son, 35-year-old Thomas Albrighton, pleaded guilty to possession of a rifle and ammunition arising out of the same garda operation.
He was given a two-year suspended jail sentence. The court was told he is has moved to Wales, is involved in his church and is living with his mother.
