DPP not compelled to adopt the preferred official language of the accused person

Criminal law – appeal against conviction and sentence - convicted in the Special Criminal Court of five offences – possession of explosive substances - Four counts of making a false report - sentenced to a term of imprisonment of eight and a half years – complained that his rights as an Irish speaker who wished to conduct his trial in Irish were infringed by the Court of trial – sufficiency of the evidence - appeal conducted bilingually - factual background – State dinner in honour of Queen Elizabeth II – warning calls – items found on search relating to explosive device - Court of trial was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the circumstantial evidence adduced had demonstrated conclusively that the accused was responsible for making the three calls to Longford Garda Station landline – fact that landline number of Longford Garda Station to which calls were made was written on the outside of the SIM pack strongly supports an inference that the purchaser of the SIM card deliberately planned the phone calls that were made - circumstantial evidence case - ample evidence available to the Court of trial on foot of which it could convict of the offence of possession of explosive substances - general observations and criticisms in relation to the position of Irish speakers before the Court - the Explosive Substances Act, 1883 was not translated into Irish - failure to provide an overnight transcript in the Irish language where an English version was made available - where the President signs the text of a Bill in one only of the official languages, an official translation shall be issued in the other official language - someone who appears in a case or choses to give evidence in a given case may not be disadvantaged by virtue of their choice of official language - any translation of the Explosive Substances Act, 1883 would have no official status - DPP may carry out its functions in the official language of its own choice - not compelled to adopt the preferred official language of the accused person - any translation of the Explosive Substances Act, 1883 would have no official status - for the Clerk of Dáil Éireann rather than for the DPP to make an official translation available if one was required by law but it is not so required - for what purpose a transcript is made up - he had no right to any transcript during the trial be it in English or in Irish or indeed in any other language – no evidence of disadvantage - position of the Irish language - arrangements put in place by the Special Criminal Court were reasonable in the circumstances- appeal dismissed