The bomb-making factory found in a Co Cavan farmhouse by gardai at the weekend is the third such IRA facility to be found in the State in recent years. The two previous discoveries were at Kilcock, Co Kildare, in March 1993, and in Clonaslee, Co Laois, last year. These small, clandestine production lines reveal how self-dependent the IRA has become in the past decade, developing a quite sophisticated small-arms manufacturing system that can produce a variety of mortars, hand-held rockets and bombs.
One of the factories, hidden in the attic of an elderly man's house in Kilcock, was still in operation when it was discovered by gardai. It was being used to manufacture incendiary bombs and timer-power units (TPUs) for larger bombs. A number of under-car booby trap bombs were also found.
The factory at Clonaslee revealed how the Provisional IRA had continued to develop its bomb-making skills and how much more effort it had put into hiding its activities. This factory was in a shed at the rear of an isolated farmhouse which had a hidden basement, reached from a hidden trap-door in the back yard where arms and explosives could be stored.
When gardai discovered the Clonaslee factory it was being used to re-engineer Mark 6 rockets, the type used in the mortar attack on Heathrow Airport in 1994. Hand-held rockets and TPUs for larger bombs were also under construction.
The Co Cavan factory is not believed to have been in operation in recent weeks and most of the equipment was in sacks or boxes. However, the equipment was ready to be quickly reassembled into a production line.
An initial examination of the material found suggests that it is very similar to the previous two factories. Large amounts of electronic equipment, circuitry, switches and wiring were visible. There are understood to be rolls of Cortex detonating wire, electric detonators, batteries and chemical compounds associated with bomb-making.
Machined parts, probably for mortars and rockets, are also understood to be present in large numbers. Timers, believed to be a standard electric type used in home-heating systems, are also thought to be present.
An as yet unknown quantity of explosive is also thought to be in the store. There are also a small number of firearms, rifles and handguns, which would be used by the bomb-makers for their own "security".
The factories discovered since 1993 all reveal the extent to which the Provisional IRA's arsenal is centred on the use of the plastic explosive Semtex, supplied to the IRA by the Libyan government between 1983 and 1986.
The supply route was eventually stopped with the seizure by French authorities of the gun-smuggling ship, the Eksund, captained by the former director of Bray Travel, Adrian Hopkins. The shipments contained tonnes of infantry weapons, including hundreds of AK-47 rifles, handguns, anti-tank rockets and ground-to-air missile systems.
The most significant element of shipments which were not intercepted, however, was the Czech-manufactured plastic explosive Semtex. This explosive is at the core of the IRA's military arsenal. During the mid-1980s, it revised its entire logistics strategy away from imported conventional infantry weapons to designing and constructing its own weapons.
Almost all the explosive devices found under construction used Semtex in varying quantities and forms. Semtex is one of the most stable explosives ever manufactured. Gardai have intercepted amounts of the explosive which had been granulated and inserted into medical tubing for use as an accelerant in large bombs of the type used to attack Canary Wharf and Manchester last year.
Gardai estimate that about half of the six tonnes of Semtex believed smuggled into the State in the early 1980s remains in the possession of the Provisional IRA. The other half has been used in attacks or discovered by security forces in Ireland, in Britain or on the Continent.