THE Garda and Army will resume searches along the Border between Louth arid Armagh this morning, following yesterday's discovery of a large amount of bomb-making materials, guns and ammunition.
The cache is thought to be a Provisional IRA store. It was spread over a number of locations, which were close to each other.
All the items were hidden in two large plastic barrels and a plastic tube and had been carefully concealed in loosely constructed stone walls. The walls were acting as field boundaries on farmland just 500 metres from the Border.
Gardai described the assorted explosives, including Semtex and electrical components, as resembling unassembled bomb-making materials. The discovery comes two weeks after 21 mortars, frames and mortar bombs were uncovered in farmland near Hackballscross, just a mile from yesterday's find.
Last month the Garda found a rocket-launcher and ammunition near Dundalk, while a large quantity of explosives was found on a farm in Co Laois in June.
There have also been significant arms and explosives finds in Britain recently. Last month the British police recovered 10 tonnes of homemade explosives in raids in London and Sussex.
By the time the search was called off last night it was confirmed that over a kilo of Semtex had been found among the explosives. The firearms included two Armalites and a Kalashnikov assault rifle, a revolver, another handgun and "a few thousand rounds" of assorted ammunition.
Concealed in plastic barrels were more than 20 mortar fuses, a number of detonators, mortar plates, cortex, fuse wire, electrical cable and switches, and a timing power unit.
Chief Supt Alo McHugh said he looked on the find as "significant". He said: "It was part of a joint Army-Garda search in the Border area of Louth and south Armagh. It will continue until we are satisfied there is nothing else to be found."
He denied reports of a booby trap device being found and said Army bomb-disposal experts were routinely involved in such an operation.