Colombia Three The Colombia Three are three individuals – Niall Connolly , James Monaghan and Martin McCauley – who are currently living in the Republic of Ireland , having fled from Colombia , where they were sentenced to prison terms of seventeen years for training FARC rebels . Arrest . The three came to prominence on 11 August 2001 , when they were arrested travelling on false passports at Bogotá International Airport while waiting to transfer to international flights out of the country . The Colombian authorities alleged at the time that they were training FARC rebels and were members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) . According to General Fernando Tapias the Colombian authorities were tipped off by " an international security organisation " . Two of the three men , Monaghan and McCauley , had arrived in Colombia on 30 June 2001 on a flight from Belfast , via Paris . Niall Connolly had flown from Dublin , via Madrid , and spent a day in Caracas before making a rendezvous in Bogotá . The three men then spent the next five weeks travelling through a demilitarised southern zone of Colombia , then under the control of the FARC rebels as part of peace talks with the Colombian government . They were arrested as soon as they touched down in Bogotá on a commercial flight on the Saturday night . Prosecution . After the men ' s arrest at Bogota airport last August they were only charged with travelling on false passports , until 15 February 2002 when they were also charged with training FARC rebels in bomb - making . After a number of delays , including a boycott of proceedings by the three accused , the trial opened on 2 December 2002 . Following a number of adjournments , the trial closed on 1 August 2003 . The trial judge returned a verdict which found the three men guilty of travelling on false passports and they were given varying sentences of up to 44 months . They were found not guilty on the more serious charges relating to training FARC rebels ; however , the judge ordered their release upon payment of fines equivalent to £3 , 800 . Appeal . In accordance with Colombian law , the prosecution had the right to appeal the verdict , which it did . While awaiting appeal , the three men were free to leave jail , but were instructed by a judge to remain within the country . The appeal court overturned the original trial verdict , and convicted the men of training the rebels , sentencing them to seventeen years in jail on 16 December 2004 . Return to Ireland . The day after their conviction , the Colombian Attorney General announced that the men had fled Colombia . On 5 August 2005 , following an interview with Monaghan by RTÉ ' s Charlie Bird , it emerged that the three men had clandestinely returned to Ireland . The three men were subsequently questioned by Gardaí but no moves have been taken in relation to extraditing them to Colombia , despite the existence of an Colombian arrest warrant , since no extradition treaty or agreement exists between Colombia and Ireland . The Colombia Three . James Monaghan . James William Monaghan ( ) was born on 9 August 1945 , and is originally from County Donegal but his last known address was in Newry , County Down . In the 1970s he was believed to have been active in the IRA , gaining the nickname ' Mortar ' on account of his skill in manufacturing homemade mortars and , according to security sources , he is head of the IRA ' s engineering section . Monaghan was arrested on terrorist charges in County Donegal in the 1970s . In 1972 he was arrested in London and given a prison sentence for terrorism offences . In 1976 , he escaped from the Special Criminal Court in Dublin following a double bomb blast . He was elected to the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle in 1989 . According to Alex Maskey , he left Sinn Féin in 1989 or 1990 , In 1999 he joined an organisation called Coiste na n - Iarchimí , a Republican ex - prisoners group . He is reported to be a member of the IRA Army Council . Martin McCauley . Martin McCauley ( ) was born on 1 December 1962 in County Armagh . He was shot aged 19 in 1982 by the Royal Ulster Constabulary ( RUC ) in a barn near Lurgan resulting from which he won a five - figure sum for damages against the RUC . He was unarmed at the time and another teenager was killed . In 1985 he was charged with weapons possession in Northern Ireland and received a two - year suspended sentence . He was a Sinn Féin election worker during assembly elections in the Upper Bann constituency in 1998 , but according to Sinn Féin he was not a member of the party . McCauley is regarded as a leading figure in the IRA ' s engineering section . Niall Connolly . Niall Connolly ( ) was born on 5 December 1964 in Glenageary , County Dublin , and was educated at Newpark Comprehensive School and Trinity College , Dublin . The only one of the three who was a fluent Spanish speaker , he has extensive experience in Latin America having worked there for a number of years . Prior to his arrest , he was resident in Cuba where the Cuban authorities claimed he was the Latin America representative for Sinn Féin . This was initially denied by Sinn Féin , but they later accepted that he had been working in Cuba as a part - time party representative .