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King Charles III

Real IRA leader convicted in Prince Charles bomb plot

The man who held a leading role in a bomb plot against Prince Charles while on a state visit to Ireland in May 2015 has been convicted.

Seamus McGrane, 63, a leader of the Real IRA, was found guilty of “directing the activities of a terrorist organisation” according to BBC.

Dublin’s Special Criminal Court also convicted McGrane of IRA membership.

His undoing was a secret recording where he was heard talking about explosives and a target of “military significance.”

In early 2015, McGrance met with Donal Ó Coisdealbha numerous times at the Coachman’s Inn in Dublin. This is where they plotted for a bomb attack during Prince Charles’s state visit.

The Irish police (gardaí) had placed listening devices at the pub where McGrane was recorded speaking of his strategy says Irish broadcaster RTÉ. 

The court was played the recording where they heard him tell  Ó Coisdealbha to “reactivate the science graduate” to get advice on explosives.

He was also instructed to find a “motorbike man” to collect the explosives, clean out a cylinder and send the bike back but not to dispose of it.

The two men spoke of a man with “military significance” coming to Ireland “on the 19th”, which coincided with Prince Charles’ arrival.

The police found “a veritable arsenal of weapons and explosives” when McGrane’s home was searched.

Last December, Ó Coisdealbha was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for following McGrane’s orders.

Prince Charles’s great-uncle Lord Mountbatten was killed in County Sligo by a Provisional IRA bomb in 1979. While on his visit, Prince Charles visited the site in Mullaghmore Harbour where the “grandfather [he] never had” was murdered.

Speaking in Sligo, he told of his “deep loss” and that the murder of Lord Mountbatten and the three others on the fishing boat helped him understand what the people affected by the Troubles had to deal with.

 

McGrane will be sentenced next month