Gardaí will today send a number of firearms discovered in north Cork to ballistics experts to establish if the weapons have been used in robberies or in incidents involving subversives.
Detectives from Mitchelstown and Fermoy recovered the four weapons - a sawn-off, double-barrel shotgun, a .22 rifle, a pistol and a .22 revolver - in a ditch in Kilworth at lunch hour yesterday.
The weapons, which were wrapped in plastic, were in a serviceable order. Gardaí believe they were hidden by dissident republicans, and that at least some of them were stolen in the past year.
The weapons were yesterday taken to Fermoy Garda station, and will be brought to Dublin today for ballistic examination to establish when they were last fired and if they were used in any armed raids in the Munster area.