Gardai will continue to search farmland in Gormanston, Co Meath, today after finding more explosives and ammunition there yesterday. The cache is believed to belong to dissident republicans including the "Real IRA".
On Monday, 1 1/2 lb of Semtex explosive was found close to a rocket-launcher and 36 detonators. The items were concealed in plastic pipes among bales of hay in a shed.
In the same shed yesterday gardai found 2 lb of explosive, also believed to be Semtex, and a magazine for a rifle. All the items are believed to be of Russian origin; the rocket-launcher, an RPG 18, had Russian markings, supporting concerns that dissidents have found a source in the eastern bloc for weaponry.
Gardai searched an underground bunker at Herbertstown House, a few miles from Gormanston, last Thursday.
It was in a wine cellar of a demolished house and was being used as a shooting range and training place for supporters of the dissidents.
Ten males were arrested under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act after a raid last Wednesday night, and seven people subsequently appeared before the Special Criminal Court.
An assault rifle, a pistol and a sub-machinegun as well as a quantity of ammunition were recovered in the bunker by gardai from the Emergency Response Unit, the Special Detective Unit and the Louth/Meath division.
Searches of the farmland in Stamullen are expected to continue for the next couple of days.
The "Real IRA", now thought to comprise about 100 activists after recruiting from other paramilitary dissident organisations opposed to the current IRA ceasefire, is thought to have been planning strikes in Northern Ireland and Britain, according to intelligence reports received by gardai and RUC.
Two people were arrested when police discovered a pipe bomb, which they said was linked to dissident loyalists, after stopping a van in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, at around 5.15 p.m. yesterday. Around 12 families were evacuated from their homes and several roads were cordoned off while the bomb was examined. As bomb disposal experts examined the device, it exploded but caused no injuries.