Irish police have uncovered another significant arms and explosives cache belonging to hardline republicans opposed to peace and power-sharing in Northern Ireland.
Searches headed by the Garda Síochána’s Special Detective Unit have found AK47 rifles, mortars and bomb components at a secret hide in County Louth in the Irish Republic, it was confirmed on Tuesday.
Security sources and a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board told the Guardian this operation was the third major blow against dissident republicans over the past seven months.
It is understood the weapons were hidden within the walls of a building in Jenkinstown, close to the border with Northern Ireland.
Ross Hussey, the Ulster Unionist member of the policing board in Belfast and a former Royal Ulster Constabulary reservist, congratulated the Garda for discovering the arsenal.
Hussey said: “Once again the people of Northern Ireland are indebted to the Garda Síochána for what is the third major dissident arms find in the past seven months.
“I understand that this cache of arms comprises assault rifles, mortars, explosive material and bomb components, and that the area has been sealed off and searches are to continue for the next few days.
“Thanks to the Garda, these weapons have been removed from the hands of republicans who would doubtless have attempted to use them to carry out acts of terrorism in Northern Ireland.”
The UUP assembly member said he believed some of the recently captured weapons used to belong to the Provisional IRA but appeared to have come into the possession of anti-ceasefire republicans.
Last month the Police Service of Northern Ireland revealed that it had seized 700 rounds of ammunition, seven mercury tilt switches used to detonate bombs, detonator cord, an assault rifle magazine and firework powder during searches in west Belfast.
The items recovered werelargely to be used for a campaign of under-car booby-trap bombs as well as larger explosive devices to be used in the run-up to Christmas, according to one security source.
So far in 2015 all three dissident republican groups – Óglaigh na hÉireann, the New IRA and the Continuity IRA – have failed to mount any major attacks on the security forces in Northern Ireland. The majority of their victims instead have been Catholics and nationalists whom these organisations have accused of “antisocial behaviour” in working-class republican districts.
