Michael McKevitt denies all the charges

The alleged leader of the Real IRA has dismissed his legal team at his trial in Dublin.

The move by Michael McKevitt, 53, came after the judges threw out a defence application to stop the trial and ruled it should continue with no retrial.

Michael McKevitt is the first person to appear at the Republic of Ireland's non-jury Special Criminal Court charged with directing terrorism.

The offence was one of a range of measures introduced by the Irish Government in the wake of the Omagh bombing in 1998.

Mr McKevitt told the court on Thursday he had been forced to sack his barristers following two failed attempts to have the hearing halted.

Three judges had rejected an attempt by the defence to stop the trial on the grounds that their case had been irreparably damaged due to the non-disclosure of crucial surveillance documents they claimed could have cleared the accused.

'Show trial'

But after all his legal representatives walked out of the courtroom Mr McKevitt stood up and said: "I will not participate any further in this political show trial and am now withdrawing myself with my dignity intact."

Lawyers for Mr McKevitt were to hear on Thursday whether their application to have his trial stopped had been successful.

The County Louth businessman is also charged with membership of an illegal organisation. He denies the charges.

His lawyers claim their case was prejudiced by the late disclosure of documents.

However, the prosecution claims that Mr McKevitt's legal team is attempting to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Mr McKevitt's legal team argued in court on Tuesday that the late disclosure of documents had irreparably prejudiced the cross-examination of the main witness, FBI and MI5 agent David Rupert.

His barrister said the defence received the material after Mr Rupert had left the witness box.

The documents appear to suggest a contradiction between some of Mr Rupert's evidence and statements, with those of Irish police.

'Concern'

Mr McKevitt's barrister said there seemed to have been a specific decision to keep this evidence from the defence, which he said was a "matter of grave concern".

The prosecution barrister replied that the attempt to halt the trial was "utterly misconceived" and an attempt to "make a mountain out of a molehill".

He said the defence had already been given thousands of documents, some of which were unfavourable to Mr Rupert.

He told the court he did not think the material was relevant until last Thursday, when he learned that the defence's case was that Mr McKevitt had never met Mr Rupert.

Mr McKevitt is one of five people the relatives of the victims of the Omagh bombing are taking a separate civil action against in Northern Ireland.

The Real IRA attack on 15 August 1998 killed 29 people, including a woman who was seven months pregnant with twins.

The Real IRA was formed after a split within the mainstream IRA. The dissident group is opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process.