WIREDGOV

The dissident Irish republican terror group threat is changing. Counter-terrorism officials must keep pace to meet the evolving security challenge.

Around 3pm on 22 July the Special Detective Unit of the Garda Síochána, the Irish police and security service, stopped a vehicle travelling on the N2 south of Carrickmacross close to the border between Monaghan and Armagh. A search of the vehicle yielded an ‘extremely sophisticated’ device. One person, a woman in her twenties, was arrested at the scene and subsequently charged. Another man in his forties was simultaneously apprehended by Gardai in Dublin. Both were released on bail, pending court proceedings. The incident catapulted the dissident republican threat back into the spotlight. It has since been reported that the device, which contained 394 grams of Semtex high explosive, a timer, a timing switch and a viable detonator, was linked to the New IRA.

The New IRA has been responsible for a range of violent activities this year, including exploding two crude and unsophisticated car bombs outside Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) stations in Lurgan, County Armagh, and in Dunmurry, on the outskirts of Belfast. Neither of these devices appeared to contain high explosives, which makes the interception of a viable Semtex-based device most concerning.

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