The Buzz | 9 face IRA charges in both parts of Ireland

Seven Irishmen have been charged with membership in an Irish Republican Army faction after Northern Ireland police raided a suspected meeting of the outlawed Continuity IRA. A judge ordered all seven held without bail during yesterday’s court arraignment in Newry, a predominantly Irish nationalist town near the province’s border with the Republic of Ireland.
The men aged 30 to 75 — three from Northern Ireland, four from the Irish Republic — were arrested in the same Newry house on Nov. 10. A detective testified that evidence includes audio recordings of the men’s private discussions produced covertly by the British spy agency MI5. Six were charged with planning terrorist acts and conspiring to procure weapons. Five were charged with directing terrorism, a charge normally levied against suspected commanders. Also yesterday, Dublin police charged two men with IRA activities following weekend swoops that netted several handguns, a sawn-off shotgun, a Kalashnikov assault rifle and bomb-making equipment.