Dublin bomb 'big enough to flatten a building'

Gardaí investigating the discovery of a massive bomb outside a hotel in Dublin are looking at the possibility that dissident republicans may be to blame.

Hundreds of wedding guests had to be evacuated from Finnstown Country House in Lucan on Saturday night while the army bomb disposal team made the device safe. The bomb was in a parked car. The operation concluded at about 3.45am.

A man in his 50s has been arrested.

Security editor with the Irish Independent Tom Brady said it is believed the device was to be transported to the North for an attack on a security target.

"It was a homemade, fertilizer-based bomb with all the components for detonation, except that the timer was not set," he said.

"It's reckoned it contained about 30 kilos of fertilizer and other ingredients. That would have been enough to flatten a building.

"It's likely it was going to be collected there and brought to Northern Ireland for a security target in the North."