{"id":708792,"date":"2026-07-24T12:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/708792\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:31:12","slug":"carrickmacross-police-intercept-car-with-bomb-on-way-to-attack-in-ni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/708792\/","title":{"rendered":"Carrickmacross: Police &#8216;intercept car with bomb on way to attack in NI&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A car containing an &#8220;extremely significant&#8221; bomb has been intercepted in the Republic of Ireland as it was being driven across the border for an attack in Northern Ireland, Irish police have said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The vehicle was stopped during an operation targeting dissident republican activities on Wednesday but further details are just emerging. Two people were arrested.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly confirmed on Friday that officers found an explosive device and described it as an &#8220;extremely significant seizure&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The vehicle was stopped on the N2 near Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, at about 15:00 local time on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A woman in her 20s, who was the driver of the vehicle, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c24m7619vndo\" class=\"ssrcss-1e0jzsh-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was arrested on Wednesday afternoon<\/a> and a man in his 40s has since been arrested. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Irish broadcaster RT\u00c9 has reported that garda\u00ed (Irish police) sources said the bomb contained a power unit, a detonator and military grade explosives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Garda\u00ed sources also said it was expected to be used as a under-car bomb in an attack in Northern Ireland, according to RT\u00c9.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking to reporters in County Tipperary, Kelly said: &#8220;Any seizure of this nature is really concerning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;However, we certainly know that there are a small minority of dissident republicans who did not agree with the Good Friday Agreement, they did not put weapons and explosives (out of use), they didn&#8217;t, you know, go through with the proper process in relation to decommissioning. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;So that is something that we continue to deal with.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There&#8217;s a small minority of these individuals, I would describe them as radicalised republicans, and this is a threat that we&#8217;re going to continue to face for some time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Kelly said that the bomb was &#8220;not just components or pieces&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This was an explosive device and it would have or could have potentially caused significant damage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This is an intelligence-led operation, so we certainly do have information in relation to the individuals involved.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ireland&#8217;s Minister for Justice Jim O&#8217;Callaghan described the seizure as &#8220;very worrying&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I think it evidences the fact that there is an ongoing threat in respect of dissident republican activity,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;But I also know that there&#8217;s been great cooperation between the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) and An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The minister added: &#8220;I suppose what I&#8217;m encouraged about is that the garda\u00ed were able to apprehend the suspect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The device has been defused. I want to commend the garda\u00ed for the work they did in ensuring that this didn&#8217;t become a real threat to the public.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A car containing an &#8220;extremely significant&#8221; bomb has been intercepted in the Republic of Ireland as it was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708793,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-708792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}