Garda swoop foiled bomb plot, court told
Dissident republican terror suspects were close to completing a bomb twice the size of the device which killed 29 people in the Omagh atrocity when gardaí swooped, a court heard today.
Continuity IRA men were putting the finishing touches to 1,100lb of explosives which detectives believe were bound for Northern Ireland when officers raided a farmyard in Co Louth, it was claimed.
Superintendent Diarmaid O’Sullivan disclosed the advanced stage of the operation during a bail application at Dublin’s Special Criminal Court.
Joseph Fee, 39, of Blackstaff, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, Seamus McKenna, 48, from Marian Park, Dundalk, Co Louth, and Greg Trainor, 37, of Culdee Road, Armagh, are all charged with unlawful possession of explosives on June 13 this year. They could be jailed for up to 14 years if found guilty.
A fourth man, Eamon Matthews, 24, of Dublin Road, Newry, has been accused of membership of the Continuity IRA and faces up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Opposing bail, Mr O’Sullivan told the court how Fee, McKenna and Trainor were arrested after gardaí followed a white Peugeot van to a farm shed at Thornfield, Iniskeen.
A ton bag of material containing 500 kilos of home-made explosives, an electric mixer, empty fertiliser bags and icing sugar were all discovered at the scene, the court heard.
The seizure involved more than double the amount of explosives used in the August 1998 Real IRA attack which devastated Omagh.
The detective said: “I believe at the time that Mr McKenna and Mr Trainor were in the process of making a bomb. It was in the final phase of completion.”
Fee was arrested with equipment allegedly for use in loading a booster tube that could then be inserted into the bag of explosives before detonator cord was added, it was claimed.
He was the main organiser, the court was told.
“The bomb was then ready for planting,” Mr O’Sullivan added.
The cement mixer had been hired the previous day in Dundalk by either Matthews or McKenna, he went on.
As he set out his reasons why bail should not be granted, the detective insisted the men had been “caught red-handed” and would continue to plot bombings for the Continuity IRA which he said was behind up to 25 planned terrorist strikes in Northern Ireland within the last 12 months.
He said: “This was one of the acts they intended to carry out against the establishment in Northern Ireland some time after the date in question.
“This organisation is not on ceasefire and is actively endeavouring to change the constitutional status in Northern Ireland by physical force.”
