A MAN regarded as a significant figure among dissident republicans was one of the three people under arrest last night following the discovery of explosives and firearms during Garda searches at two locations.
The related search operations took place in Monivea and Tuam, both in Co Galway.
Two men and a woman are being held at Galway Garda station under section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
Their arrests and the discovery of the weapons and explosives followed a lengthy surveillance operation against suspected dissident republicans who gardaí believe were providing logistical support and safe houses for active units.
The first of the finds was made in Monivea, about 10km from Athenry, when a team of gardaí searched outhouses in a local farmyard.
The search team, comprising local gardaí and armed members of the Garda’s western division regional support unit, found 120kg of commercial explosives in the shed.
During a search of a farmhouse beside the sheds, three shotguns and a handgun were discovered and a 48-year-old man was arrested.
The focus of the operation then switched to Tuam where a search at a house yielded a handgun.
Two people, a man and woman who are both aged 40, were arrested at the scene.
Gardaí said while the man arrested in Monivea was not regarded as a major dissident figure, the man detained in Tuam had long been a Garda target.
Both the find in Tuam and that in Monivea were made on Wednesday. The farm in Monivea and the house in Tuam were sealed off on Wednesday and throughout yesterday for a forensic examination by members of the Garda Technical Bureau.
The Army’s bomb-disposal team was called in to make safe the explosives in Monivea before they were removed and taken for examination to Garda Headquarters, Phoenix Park, Dublin.
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said the arrests and gun and explosive seizures had resulted from the gathering of intelligence and its effective use to disrupt suspected dissident republican groups.
At a Garda passing-out ceremony in the Garda College, Templemore, Co Tipperary, yesterday, Mr Callinan said: “All of these seizures and arrests are very significant and it is important that we continue to do our part in terms of the carnage that is going on in Northern Ireland and the frequency and range of attacks that are occurring up there.
“I am certainly committed with my senior officers and team to bring the perpetrators of these particular types of activities to justice.”
