Seven men were in Garda custody in Dublin, Louth and Donegal last night after a series of arrests targeting suspected dissident republicans, Frank McNally writes. The operation, on the eve of today's crucial Ulster Unionist Council meeting, followed Thursday's discovery of Semtex and other bomb-making equipment in a house in west Dublin.
A man questioned about the seizure was released yesterday and a file sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Two of the men, who are all aged between 32 and 50, were detained in Dundalk, Co Louth; two in Letterkenny, Co Donegal; while the others were arrested in Dublin, at Irishtown, Blackrock and Shankill.
One is believed to be a former quartermaster general of the IRA and the leader of the "Real IRA", the group responsible for the Omagh bomb. It is believed membership of the splinter group has grown since the Provisional IRA statement that it would put weapons "beyond use".