An explosive device found on a television mast in Ardara, Co Donegal, looked like a pipe bomb but was in fact a very large firework, a ballistics expert said yesterday.
Det Sgt William Brennan said on November 21st, 1996, he was called to look at the components of a suspect package found on a cable on the mast.
He said components were insulating tape; just under 12in of plastic waterpipe; a 3in wooden bung from a gardening tool; a steampipe insulating jacket; 10 pieces of firework fuse; a piece of yellow plastic adhesive tape; five firework bodies each broken in two, with fuses; and 75.2g (2.7oz) of grey powder.
Det Sgt Brennan said: "This most definitely was not a pipe-bomb. In summary, I suppose, it was a homemade rather large firework as distinct from a pipebomb."
A pipe bomb would be capable of doing very significant damage and producing steel shrapnel, but in this case it was a plastic pipe containing firework elements. If properly ignited, it could produce a very loud report, or bang, but would not be of the same magnitude as a pipe bomb, he said.
The powder used contained constituents of a lot of commercial, display-type fireworks. In tests he carried out, it would not ignite rapidly and would then produce sparks. But because of its contents, it was an explosive under the Act, he added.
The fuses were prepared for ignition but he could find no evidence that they were lit, Det Sgt Brennan added.
In the Ardara module, the tribunal is looking into allegations that a device found on the mast on November 21st, 1996, was made by a garda in the yard of Ardara Garda station or a Garda station in Co Donegal. It is alleged it was then brought to the mast and planted there for the purpose of arresting a number of people. These included Hugh Diver, the late Anthony Diver and Bernard Shovlin, their brother-in-law, who had land adjacent to the mast.
The 24m (80ft) mast is on a mountain on a then Telecom Éireann-owned site. Some time in the 1990s a licence was required by Cable Management Ltd so they could transmit television signals in southwestern Donegal.
There were protests by local people as they felt there were enough masts and adequate transmission. There were incidents such as glue squirted into locks, nails on the road and intimidation of personnel trying to access the site. On November 7th, 1996, the situation escalated when an arson attack on the site caused £50,000 worth of damage to equipment.
Yesterday, a forensic scientist with the Department of Justice, John McCullough, said he received a sample of grey powder from the device found and fingernail scrapings of Hugh and Anthony Diver.
The powder did not light. It only gave out sparks and was likely to be from a commercial firework, he said. "I did not find anything similar in the sets of nail scrapings of Hugh and Anthony Diver."