Gabriel Cleary is a senior engineer in the Provisional IRA. A native of Tallaght, he was arrested in 1987 when the French and Irish governments intercepted a shipment of weapons from Libya. After spending five years in French prison, Leary was freed in 1992. He was arrested in a raid on an underground bomb factory in County Laois in 1996; he was released from prison in 1998, as part of the peace process. He was the Director of Engineering on the General Headquarters Staff (GHQ).