Weapons caches, bomb-making equipment found in Northern Ireland

Apr 24, 2011, 14:27 GMT

London - Police in Northern Ireland on Sunday said they found bomb-making equipment in south Armagh.

The discovery on Saturday night came after several weapons caches belonging to suspected dissident republican groups were uncovered in the county.

On Friday, police seized weapons and explosives from a storage facility in the city of Omagh and arrested three men. A policeman was killed in a bomb attack in the area three weeks ago.

Northern Ireland went on full terrorist alert at the start of the Easter weekend, the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule. Authorities also fear dissidents now have the capacity to carry out attacks on the British mainland.

Constable Ronan Kerr was killed when a bomb attached to his car exploded on April 2. Several weapons caches were found in the aftermath and a 33-year-old man was charged with possession of firearms.

For decades, Northern Ireland was the scene of a bloody sectarian conflict between Catholic Republicans, backing a union with the Republic of Ireland, and pro-British Protestants.

The conflict ended with the so-called Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Splinter groups from the Irish Republican Army (IRA) remain active however.

'Those who believe that Ireland can be reunited without the support of the Irish people are living in a fools paradise,' Martin McGuinness, former head of the republican Sinn Fein party said Sunday.

Sinn Fein, the one-time political arm of the IRA, is part of the Catholic-Protestant unity government that was formed four years ago.