Dissident bomb scares disrupt security

SECURITY:DISSIDENT REPUBLICANS have disrupted the security operation around Queen Elizabeth's State visit with incidents involving hoax and viable explosives devices including security alerts at courthouses and railway stations.

Gardaí are prepared for further incidents today but sources said that given the tight security at sites to be visited by the Queen her schedule is unlikely to be affected.

Last night a controlled explosion was carried out on a suspect device at Blessington Street, central Dublin. The area was sealed off at 8.30pm while the object, an “elaborate hoax”, was made safe by the army bomb disposal unit.

Yesterday morning dissidents telephoned a coded warning to the PSNI in Belfast, claiming bombs had been planted in the Republic in courthouses in Dundalk, Monaghan and Drogheda.

While the courthouses were cleared at 10.30am by gardaí and searched, nothing was found. Court sittings quickly resumed.

At about 11am another hoax device was found in Fairview Park, north Dublin. A crude device was left in a plastic bag at the base of the statue of the former republican leader Sean Russell.

Gardaí sealed off the area immediately but the area was declared safe just over an hour later.

Rail services were affected yesterday afternoon after security alerts at Drogheda station. Phoenix Park station in Dublin was closed at 11am when a suspect device, later found to be a hoax, was found.

There was a security alert on the Luas red line in Dublin at 6am when a suspect device was found onboard near Davitt Road in Inchicore, south Dublin.

The Luas was evacuated and all services along the canal were cancelled for a period. Army bomb disposal experts examined the device, which was a hoax.

The only incident that involved a viable device occurred in Maynooth, Co Kildare, when a search of a bus yielded a pipe bomb.

The coach was contracted by Bus Éireann and was carrying about 35 passengers from Ballina, Co Mayo, to Dublin when calls were received by gardaí warning of a bomb on board.

Passengers were taken off and gardaí found a viable pipe bomb in a luggage hold just after 11.30pm on Monday as the bus and nearby area were sealed off outside the Glen Royal Hotel. While all the components to make a bomb were present the device was not primed.