by Caoimhinn Barr, Inishowen
Independent
An Inishowen councillor has spoken of his shock and
distress after a significant arms dump was
uncovered by Gardai during planned searches between
Bridgend and Killea earlier this week.
The haul, which consists of bomb-making components
and a substantial quantity of ammunition, was
located during a search of fields close to the
village of Killea early on Tuesday morning. The road
to Bridgend remained sealed off last evening as
members of the Gardai continued their operation.
Irish Army bomb disposal experts had earlier been
deployed to the rural area following the discovery
of the arms cache near the ‘Hill Road’ at
approximately 8am on Tuesday.
It is understood bullets, batteries and circuit
boards were among the items recovered after a local
resident happened upon them after carrying out work
on the land
A Garda spokesman refused to speculate on who may
have been responsible for the arms dump.
Fine Gael councillor for the area, John Ryan said
the arms find was a disturbing development.
“I am very shocked by what has happened here. We
have seen a rejuvenation in the activities of
dissident republicans recently with the bomb at the
Strand Road in Derry but we have haven’t experienced
anything on this side of the border for a long
number of years,” he said.
“We have been through decades of incidents like this
and we don’t want to see a return to this type of
activity. I am hoping it is an isolated incident and
that those responsible will disappear. They have no
support on the ground so I don’t know where they
think they are getting their mandate from.”
“Inishowen has been badly affected by the recession
and acts like this do us no favours in terms of
attracting tourism. The one positive to come out of
this is that hopefully the Gardai have prevented an
atrocity from happening in the future,” Clr. Ryan
added. |
