Six men were jailed by the Special Criminal Court today for taking part in a Real IRA training camp.
Ten people were seen meeting at the farm and going to a field by armed detectives who had mounted a security investigation, the court heard.
Three juveniles who were among those arrested made statements about their presence at the training camp, a senior garda told the court.
Seamus McGrane, 46, of Little Road, Dromiskin, Co Louth; Seamus McGreevy, 47, a farmer of Stamullen, Gormanston, Co Meath, and Martin Conlon, 31, of Railway St, Armagh City, pleaded guilty to training other persons in the use of firearms at Herbertstown, Stamullen, Co Meath on October 20, 1999.
Damien Lawless, 32, of Nicholas Avenue, Dundalk; Anthony Ryan, 25, of Grange Abbey Drive, Donaghmede, Dublin and his brother Alan Ryan, 20, also of Grange Abbey Drive, Dublin, pleaded guilty to receiving training from other persons in the use of firearms at Stamullen on the same date, the Special Criminal Court heard.
McGrane, McGreevy and Conlon were each jailed for four years and Lawless and Anthony Ryan were each jailed for three years. Alan Ryan was jailed for four years to date from the termination of a three-year prison sentence he is currently serving for possession of a gun because he committed an offence while on bail.
Det Supt Mr Peter Maguire, of the Special Detective Unit, told prosecuting counsel, Mr Edward Comyn SC, that a joint operation by detectives from the Crime and Security Branch and the Special Detective Unit was mounted at a farm in Co Louth and a field at Stamullen in Co Meath.
Gardaí found an assault rifle, a sub machine gun, a semi-automatic pistol in the cellar. The weapons and magazines and ammunition were laid out on sheets and the cellar had lighting from a generator.
Mr Maguire said it was a training camp set up for training people in the use of paramilitary weapons and had been used on a number of occasions before it was discovered by gardaí.
He said the weapons were to be used in the State and against the institutions of the State and in Northern Ireland for the furtherance of political objectives.
He said Alan Ryan had been on trial at the Special Criminal Court and was remanded on bail at the time of his arrest at Stamullen.
Three teenagers and another man have already been given suspended sentences for their part in the training camp.
PA
