A Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial in which nuns from an enclosed order have to give evidence against a man accused of aggravated burglary may be held in the order's monastery next year.
Cormac Quinn, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, told Judge Michael White yesterday that an application would be made on the trial date, March 2nd, 2006, to the judge hearing the case, for the court to sit at the monastery of the Redemptoristine Nuns.
Judge Desmond Hogan has already rejected a previous application by Mr Quinn to allow the nuns, whom he said were members of a secluded religious order, to give evidence via video link.
Marjorie Young, defending, objected to the application.
Judge Hogan said he did not accept that the nuns' constitutional right to religious freedom was in any way impinged upon by attending court. He said the nuns felt they would be "taken outside of the obligations imposed on them by the rules of their order".
Judge Hogan said he read a letter from the prioress of the community explaining that they were not permitted outside except in exceptional circumstances, but there was an absence of evidence that the nuns would fear facing the accused man.