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Irish police have intercepted a sophisticated homemade bomb near the border with Northern Ireland as they warned that “radicalised republicans” remained ready to mount attacks in the region.
The device, which involved military-grade explosives, was found in a vehicle in County Monaghan on Wednesday. The car’s driver, a woman in her twenties, was arrested, police said.
Justin Kelly, the head of Ireland’s An Garda Síochána police force, said the interception “was an extremely significant seizure”, adding: “This was an explosive device, not just the seizure of components or pieces. It would have or could have potentially caused significant damage.”
There have been a number of crude attempted bomb attacks on police stations in Northern Ireland in recent months. In March and April, two civilian vehicles were hijacked, loaded with explosive material and driven to police stations. One exploded as police were evacuating two babies and other residents from nearby homes.
But the device intercepted this week contained a power unit, detonator and military-grade explosives, setting it apart from crude pipe bombs.
Police said the woman was arrested and the bomb intercepted after police attached to a special detective unit stopped the vehicle on Wednesday on a main road south of the town of Carrickmacross near the border. Bomb experts made the device safe and removed it for forensic tests.
A man in his forties has since been arrested.
Northern Ireland’s three decades-long Troubles conflict involving Irish republicans fighting to reunite the island and pro-UK loyalist paramilitaries, and British security forces, ended with the Good Friday Agreement peace deal in 1998.
“We certainly know that there are a small minority of dissident republicans who did not agree with the Good Friday Agreement, they did not put weapons and explosives [out of use],” Kelly said.
“There’s a small minority of these individuals, I would describe them as radicalised republicans, and this is a threat that we’re going to continue to face for some time.”
One security source who asked not to be identified saw “two worrying things — one, the level of skill involved [in this bomb] and two, how people get hold of explosives . . . It does put people in fear.”
The bomb was condemned across the political spectrum in Northern Ireland.
Colum Eastwood, the Social Democratic and Labour Party MP for Foyle, said the bomb was “deeply concerning”.
“This incident will bring back dark memories of our past for many,” he added. “We have seen an uptick in extreme violence from dissident republicans in recent years and this is another stark reminder of the capability they have to cause harm to innocent people.”
Gerry Kelly, a Northern Irish legislator from the nationalist Sinn Féin party who serves on the region’s policing board, slammed the “reckless” actions of those who had made the bomb, “which could have caused devastating destruction and misery”.
