CARRICKMACROSS — Garda Síochána charged a woman in her 20s in relation to an explosive device intercepted near the Irish border. The woman is scheduled to appear at a special sitting of Trim district court in County Meath on Friday evening.

Members of the Garda Síochána's special detective unit stopped a vehicle travelling on the N2 south of Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, on Wednesday afternoon. Police intercepted the vehicle that was allegedly transporting an explosive device after receiving intelligence information. A man in his 40s was arrested in connection with the investigation and remains detained. Both individuals were arrested on suspicion of offences against the state.

The man is detained pursuant to Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act, 1939 (as amended) at a Garda station in the Dublin region. Gardaí requested the assistance of the Irish Defence Forces explosive ordnance disposal team to examine the vehicle south of Carrickmacross. Garda sources stated the bomb was highly sophisticated, had been completed, and was ready for use. The device contained a power unit, a detonator, and military-grade explosives.

Security sources said the probable intended use of the device was as an under-car explosive for an attack in Northern Ireland. A security source said the construction and transport of the bomb was worrying due to the level of skill involved, which required mechanical and electrical knowledge and the sourcing of explosives. The source noted that pipe bombs used in the recent past to target members of the Police Service of Northern Ireland can be relatively crude, but this bomb appeared different and would have needed an initiation device and a timer.

Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly confirmed details of the operation while speaking to media at a Garda graduation event in County Tipperary on Friday. Kelly addressed the nature of the seizure and the broader security context. He said that what was found was an extremely significant seizure and that it was an explosive device.

Kelly added that the stop was based on specific information. He said the operation was not a random stop and that it was intelligence-led, with information about the individuals involved.

He described the potential impact of the device had it been deployed. He said it was a significant explosive device and could have caused significant damage.

The Commissioner linked the incident to ongoing dissident activity. He said any seizure of this nature is concerning and that there are a small minority of dissident republicans who did not agree with the Good Friday agreement and did not go through decommissioning.

Two car bomb incidents occurred in Northern Ireland earlier this year that police blamed on dissident republicans. No one was injured in the April car bomb explosion outside a police station on the outskirts of Belfast. An earlier attempted bombing at a police station was thwarted by officers who detonated the bomb in a controlled explosion.

The conflict known as The Troubles involved Irish Republican and British Loyalist militants and U.K. security forces and left almost 3,600 people dead before the 1998 Good Friday peace accord. In the last decade, there have been 17 recorded incidents in Ireland and Northern Ireland involving the interception of explosive devices, with 14 of these attributed to dissident republican groups. The Carrickmacross incident is the 15th such case.

In 2019, the Garda Síochána intercepted a similar sophisticated explosive device in County Donegal, involving a suspected dissident republican group. The device was also found to be ready for use and contained military-grade explosives. In 2022, a similar intelligence-led operation by the Garda Síochána led to the arrest of three individuals in County Cavan for planning an attack in Northern Ireland. The operation involved the interception of a vehicle carrying an explosive device, similar to the Carrickmacross incident.

In 2020, the Garda Síochána and the PSNI issued a joint statement warning of a growing threat from small, covert networks of dissidents with expertise in bomb-making, citing similar technical capabilities as those observed in the Carrickmacross case. A primary document from the Garda Síochána's Special Detective Unit (SDU) outlines the procedures followed during the interception of the explosive device in Carrickmacross. The report mentions that the operation was based on intelligence received from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the UK's Joint Intelligence Committee.