Sentencing Edmund Dunican this morning, Judge Patricia Ryan said this was a planned and premeditated offence which has ongoing adverse effects on the victims.

During a court hearing in December 2018, Dunican told the court he had a “problem” with an opposing barrister, Lisa Daly, before he drew a “realistic” firearm from his briefcase and threatened her with it, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard.

At the time, Dunican was wearing an elaborate device around his neck that resembled a pipe bomb. The court heard Dunican, a fitter by trade, made the fake bomb at home.

The judge in the court room refused to leave when Dunican told her she could go. Instead, she repeatedly appealed to him to drop the gun and attempted to defuse the situation.

The 17-minute siege ended after an armed garda negotiator persuaded Dunican to surrender the gun and let the women go. The court building was evacuated and surrounded by armed garda units during the incident, while an army unit was called in to assess the device.

Dunican pleaded guilty to one count of carrying an imitation firearm with criminal intent at Smithfield on 20 December 2018.

It is an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 14 years’ imprisonment and a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. Dunican has no previous convictions.

Judge Ryan reduced a sentence of 11 years to eight years after noting a number of mitigating factors, including Dunican’s remorse and his state of mind at the time. Fiona Murphy SC, defending, had told the court that at the time he felt this was his only course of actions.

Judge Ryan backdated the sentence to the day of the offence, as Dunican has been in custody since then. She suspended the final two years on condition that he be of good behaviour and that he have no contact whatsoever with any of the three victims.