Gardai have disrupted plans by dissident republicans to take weapons from Provisional IRA arms dumps in the south-west and move them to Northern Ireland for possible attacks on the security forces.
Ahead of a significant arms seizure yesterday, the Garda National Surveillance Unit had been monitoring the activities of the dissidents, who are associated with the minor republican terrorist group, the Continuity IRA, in the Limerick area.
A 39-year-old Co Limerick man was being questioned by gardai after being arrested following the discovery of the cache of former Provisional IRA home-made rockets and Semtex explosives.
The rockets are believed to have been manufactured by the Provisional IRA in the mid-1990s. They are similar to weapons seized by gardai at an arms factory in an isolated farmhouse in Co Laois in 1994.
The seizure highlights Government and Garda concerns that the remaining IRA arms dumps are vulnerable to seizure by dissidents so long as no decommissioning or verifiable destruction takes place.
The weapons were in the back of a commercial van which was heading towards Cahir when it was stopped at a checkpoint outside the town late on Sunday evening. Spotting the checkpoint, the driver jumped from the van and ran off. He was pursued by gardai. A man was later arrested.
The man was being detained at Cahir Garda station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act. He can be held without charge until tomorrow evening.
A team of ballistics and fingerprint experts from Garda Headquarters in Dublin was still examining the haul last night.
It included 17 improvised hand grenades; two drogue bombs which were primed and contained 1 1/2lb of Semtex between them; component parts capable of being made into a further 12 such bombs; and two dozen projective grenades, about 1 1/2 feet each in length. The weapons were hidden under straw in the van.
A Garda spokesman said the find was "very significant" and sinister "in respect of the fact that the drogue bombs were primed for use". The bombs are designed to be dropped on their targets from a height and have armour-piercing capability.
Garda sources said the items discovered may originally have belonged to the IRA, which smuggled large quantities of Semtex into Ireland in the 1980s.
The Continuity IRA was set up in the early 1990s by members connected with the splinter political group, Republican Sinn Fein. The party denies it has any direct involvement with the Continuity IRA.