Gardai are today continuing their investigation into what is believed to have been a dissident Republican bomb plot targeting a unionist peer.
An investigation was launched yesterday after a 70lb bomb failed to explode at the home of tycoon Dr Edward Haughey - now Lord Ballyedmond - at his home at Hackballscross, Co Louth.
The device was discovered in the downstairs room of the house being extensively renovated on land at Dungooley, between Dundalk and Castleblaney near the border with Armagh.
The incident has prompted a call in the North for Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde to make a public assessment of the terrorist threat from dissident republicans in Northern Ireland.
UUP deputy leader Danny Kennedy said that, following recent firebomb attacks and bomb alerts on the northern side of the border, dissident republicans appeared to be engaged on a sustained campaign of terror.
The gas cylinder bomb is believed to have been packed with fertiliser mix and attached to 70 metres of detonating cord, which ran down an outside pathway. An attempt had been made to explode the device, according to an Army spokesman. The detonator ignited but the explosive did not go off.
Gardai said if the bomb had detonated it would have destroyed the house. An Army bomb disposal team moved in to make safe the device after it was discovered by a farm labourer around lunchtime.
It was taken away for further examination while gardai also took a sample for forensic tests.
While the house was undergoing extensive work, there have been no builders on site for the last 10 days.
Lord Ballyedmond is an Ulster Unionist peer in the British House of Lords and former member of the Seanad.
He founded the leading pharmaceutical company Norbrook Laboratories in 1968.
The 'Real IRA' are the prime suspects and are believed to be behind last week's arson attacks on British-owned stores in Newry. The are also thought responsible for leaving numerous small devices on the Belfast - Dublin railway line, some of which were hoaxes.
Dr Haughey owns Ballyedmond Castle in Rostrevor, Co Down, and Corby Castle in Cumbria, England, and is the second richest man in Northern Ireland, with an estimated personal wealth of stg£350 million.
PA