The Army Bomb Disposal Squad has returned to barracks this evening after an exemption of a suspicious device in the residence of Dublin's Lord Mayor was found not to contain explosives.
The discovery of a "very old" fire extinguisher" had caused concern among gardai and Defence Forces searching the premises following a report claiming a loyalist paramilitary bomb planted there 25 years ago may still be in the building.
Lord Mayor Vincent Jackson, his wife Veronica, and their staff left the Mansion House last night and a search began at 9am.
Shortly after 3.30pm the bomb squad were called to the scene after the discovery of what is was described as a "suspicious device".
The security alert was sparked by the allegation made in an interview with a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in this morning's Belfast Telegraph.
In the interview it is claimed the UVF planned to "wipe out" the Sinn Féin leadership by planting the bomb at the party's ardfheis just weeks after the ending of the 1981 hunger strike.
The group said it had passed details on the planned bombing to the Government in recent days.
The man, described by the paper as one of the UVF's "most senior leaders", claimed the bomb was hidden in a fire extinguisher and concealed in a ceiling above the ard fheis platform but that the device malfunctioned.
The newspaper's source said a UVF unit was "dispatched to wipe out the whole leadership" of the republican movement.
He did not say why the bomb did not go off. "There are several theories on what may or may not have happened," he told the newspaper.
"First of all, it could have been discovered and not announced. Secondly, it could have been removed (but) not in the knowledge of what it was. And, thirdly, as pointed out, it could still be there."
The party conference is remembered for Danny Morrison's Armalite and ballot box speech.
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