Four men were being questioned by gardai last night following the discovery of a large quantity of explosives at a disused fishmonger's shop in Howth harbour in Dublin.
One of the men is believed to be a supporter of a recently-formed republican group, the Thirty-two County Sovereignty Committee. He was arrested shortly after 9 a.m. yesterday at his home in the Balbriggan area.
Two of the men are being questioned at Whitehall Garda station and two at Santry Garda station in Dublin. They are being held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act and can be detained for up to 48 hours.
One-and-a-half tonnes of homemade explosives were found at the premises on West Pier in Howth yesterday morning, following a surveillance operation.
It is believed that the explosives may have been destined for Britain or the North and were awaiting collection at the port.
The explosives were removed by Army personnel and will be examined by forensic specialists.
The Thirty-two County Sovereignty Committee was established last month and is a single-issue lobby group. Its vice-chairwoman is Ms Bernadette Sands McKevitt, a sister of the late IRA hungerstriker, Bobby Sands.
The committee opposes the amendment of Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution to Eireann, making make Irish unity subject to the consent of a majority in Northern Ireland, and also the Mitchell Principles, which are a precondition for participation in the Stormont talks.
The group was formed at a meeting in Dublin early last month of republicans who were unhappy with the peace process. Among its members are nine people who resigned from the Co Louth branch of Sinn Fein.
There are currently 15 seats on its committee, but the organisation says this will increase to 32, so that each county is represented.
Although the organisation supports the IRA ceasefire, it argues that Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness should have sent back the Mitchell Principles. In particular, it wants Ireland's sovereignty to be recognised by Britain.
The Department of the Marine said in a statement last night that legal steps had been initiated to recover the Howth premises before yesterday's find.
The Department said that the premises were leased to Comhair Iascaire Eireann Teo, a co-operative registered with the Registrar of Friendly Societies, but that on the basis of "an unsatisfactory history of the co-operative's tenancy over the years", the Minister indicated on July 10th last that he would not be in a position to renew the lease, which ran out a year ago.
Yesterday afternoon, fishermen and other local people, still abuzz with talk about the sinking of one fishing trawler and the burning of another in the harbour almost a week ago, looked on in astonishment as armed soldiers patrolled the West Pier outside Molly Malone's shop.
The armed soldiers had arrived at the neglected two-storey building shortly before 2 p.m., and while two men stood guard at the doorway, other soldiers went inside to remove the home-made explosives. Some of those who had been surveying the wreck of one of the sabotaged trawlers, the Fleetwood Lady, had to stroll only yards to observe the scene. "We'll be very nervous until it's dealt with," said one shop-owner.
Howth residents overlooking the harbour expressed surprise at the discovery of such a large quantity of explosives in the area. "I heard it on the one o'clock news. The first thing I thought of was that they would have been planning to take it somewhere else and that it would not have been used here," said one local woman.
"You often see things happening at the end of the pier, with bodies being found in the water and so on. We are used to a lot of activity down there."
Another woman living in the village said of the news: "I have got to the point where nothing in this country surprises me. I just know that with the boat having been sunk last week that this is two out of three. What will happen next?"