Belfast man had keg bomb at Kilcurry church

A Belfast man has pleaded guilty at Dublin’s Special Criminal Court to possession of a keg bomb at a church in north Louth.

The trial of William Burns (40) had entered its second day last Thursday when he changed his plea. Burns, with an address at Kerrera Street in Ardoyne, admitted the unlawful possession of the explosive substances PETN and RDX, an adapted 50-litre beer keg and 50kg of ammonium nitrate home-made explosive and having an improvised detonation cord, an improvised steel booster tube and an improvised timer and power unit at Kilcurry Church, in May 2014.

Brian McCartney, for Burns, told the court that his client wanted to be re-arraigned and when the registrar read the charge he replied ‘guilty’.

On Wednesday, opening the trial, prosecuting counsel Paul Greene told the three- judge, non-jury court that on the evening of the offence, two men drove a white Transit van to a car park off the N1, the old main road from Dublin to Belfast, before Burns arrived with in a red Volkswagen Passat with a Northern Ireland registration.

The two vehicles then drove to Kilcurry Church, where they parked back-to-back and an improvised explosive device was moved from the van and placed in the boot of Burns’ car.

While searching his vehicle, gardaí also found a 50-litre Guinness barrel, plastic tubing which contained white powder suspected to be explosive, and an electric timer, marked safe to arm, with a LED warning light attached and the time set for a 30-minute delay.

Mr Justice Paul Butler, presiding with Judge Alison Lindsay and Judge Cormac Dunne, remanded Burns on continuing bail until July 29, when he will be sentenced.