Irish police have intercepted what officials are calling a major explosive device inside a vehicle that was heading toward the border with Northern Ireland earlier this week, authorities announced Friday.
Detectives stopped the car on Wednesday and brought in the military’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit to inspect what was inside. Two individuals are now being questioned about potential crimes against the state.
Irish Police Commissioner Justin Kelly addressed reporters directly about the severity of the find. “Certainly it was a significant explosive device, not just the seizure of components or pieces. It would have or could have potentially caused significant damage,” he said.
Kelly also pointed to who may be responsible, saying, “We know that there were a small minority of dissident republicans who did not agree with the Good Friday Agreement. I would describe them as radicalized republicans, and this is a threat that we’re going to continue to face for some time.”
The vehicle was pulled over near the County Monaghan town of Carrickmacross, roughly 10 kilometres — about 6 miles — from the open border separating the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
A woman in her 20s who was driving the car was taken into custody and remains detained. A man in his 40s has also been arrested in connection with the case.
Occasional attacks by nationalist militant groups, frequently involving attempted car bombings, have persisted in Northern Ireland for nearly 30 years since the 1998 peace agreement that largely brought an end to the region’s sectarian conflict. That violence claimed approximately 3,600 lives over the course of the struggle between nationalists pushing for a unified Ireland, pro-British unionists who wanted Northern Ireland to stay part of the United Kingdom, and British forces.
The New IRA militant group took credit for a car bomb that detonated outside a police station in Belfast this past April. That came just one month after another explosive device, placed in a hijacked vehicle and aimed at a different station, was safely defused.
