Gardaí in Cork are to prepare a file for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) after releasing without charge on Wednesday night two men arrested as part of an investigation into the Real IRA in Cork City.
Armed officers arrested the men (aged 46 and 42) near a forest at Coombe between Glenville and Carrignavar, about 22km from the city, after 11pm on Monday.
The first 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 second suspect was stopped in a car one kilometre away on the Glenville to Whitechurch Road.
The two men were arrested on suspicion of being members of an illegal organisation and taken to Gurranebraher and Mayfield Garda stations. They were held under Section 30 of the Offences of the State Act which allows gardaí detain suspects for up to 48 hours.
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Gardaí released both men late on Wednesday night without charge and will now prepare a file in relation to two men as part of an investigation into the activities of the Real IRA, which gardaí suspect has around 30 members in the greater Cork area.
Gardaí carried out a major search operation of the forest but found no weapons, leading investigators to believe the Real IRA unit was preparing an arms hide in the forest but had yet to move the weapons there.
On Tuesday, detectives carried out a number of raids on some eight houses in the Rathcooney, Ballyvolane, Mayfield, Blackpool, Knocknaheeney and Curraheen areas of Cork City. They seized a number of vehicles for technical examination.
In the past, the Real IRA in Cork has issued a number of warnings to drug dealers in the city to desist from drug dealing. They have also claimed responsibility for the murder of drug dealers going back to the shooting of Kieran O’Flynn (39) in Dublin Hill in June 2001.
The Real IRA also claimed responsibility for the murder of Gerard “Topper” Staunton (41) in Wilton in January 2010 and for the murder of Darren Falsey (26) in Carrigaline in August 2011.
However, gardaí believe that although the Real IRA has issued warnings to drug dealers to leave communities or face being shot, they are making the threats with a view to extorting money from those dealing in drugs.
Gardaí believe this is what happened in both September 2018 and in November 2019 when shots were fired at a man in his 40s near his home in Ballyvolane. A man suffered a number of non-life threatening gunshot wounds in the second incident.
Both shootings were in the Glenheights Road area of Ballyvolane, not far from the home of former Real IRA chief of staff Aidan “The Beast” O’Driscoll (37). Gardaí believe he was shot dead by his former associates near Blackpool in December 2016.
Mr O’Driscoll had been expelled from the Real IRA for “unrepublican activities” and, when he was shot, was associating with members of the rival New IRA who were seeking to supplant the Real IRA in Cork but have made little progress.
