Members of An Garda Síochána in Cork were continuing to question two men about the activities of the Real IRA in the south on Tuesday evening. It comes after gardaí foiled what they believe was an attempt to prepare an arms dump in a remote forest in north Cork.
Armed officers arrested the two men, who are both aged in their 40s and from Cork city, near the forest at Coombe between Glenville and Carrignavar some time after 11pm on Monday night.
One man was arrested by armed members of the Special Detective Unit backed up by members of the Armed Support Unit after he tried to flee across fields. The other man was stopped in a vehicle a kilometre away on the Glenville to Whitechurch Road.
The men were arrested on suspicion of being members of an illegal organisation and were taken to Garda stations in Cork city where they are detained under section 30 of the Offences of the State Act. This section allows gardaí to detain suspects for up to 48 hours.
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Gardaí also carried out follow-up searches of eight houses in areas of Cork city on Tuesday and seized a number of vehicles for technical examination as part of the same operation.
More than 50 plainclothes and uniformed officers were involved in the operation aimed at disrupting the activities of a suspected Real IRA Active Service Unit in the city. Gardaí believe the unit was preparing an arms dump in the remote forest to store weapons.
Garda search teams and technical experts were continuing to comb the forest near where the men were arrested.
Gardaí believe the operation has dealt a significant blow to the activities of the Real IRA in Cork. They suspect the group has more than 30 members around the city and is the dominant dissident republican grouping in the city and county.
Garda sources say that, unlike elsewhere in the country, the rival New IRA has failed to make any headway in Cork, particularly since the murder of former Real IRA Chief of Staff, Aidan “the Beast” O’Driscoll (37) following his expulsion from the Real IRA for “unrepublican activities”.
O’Driscoll was shot dead on the Commons Road in Cork near Blackpool Church on December 7th, 2016. He had been associating with New IRA members in Cork who have suffered other setbacks locally since O’Driscoll’s murder in a feud with the Real IRA.
Among these blows to the New IRA in Cork was the Garda’s arrest in 2020 of a senior figure in the organisation. He is currently contesting his extradition to Northern Ireland. He is being sought on IRA membership and terrorist charges following an MI5 sting operation.
