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Dissident Republicans With Their Rockets And Their Guns

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Supposed improvised rocket prototypes developed by Irish republican insurgents along with AKM, AK47 rifles and other munitions seized by Gardaí
Supposed improvised rocket prototypes developed by Irish republican insurgents along with AKM, AK47 rifles and other munitions seized by Gardaí

Did someone mention, “general election“? With April the 8th serving as the legal cut-off point for the holding of the next Dáil vote things are beginning to get a wee bit tense, almost excitable, in Irish politics. Perhaps not entirely unrelated to this is the decision by An Garda Síochána to stage a presentation of arms and equipment seized from “Dissident” or “Resistance Republicans” over the last two years, an event which made something of a splash with sections of the Irish and British press. From a report in Wednesday’s Irish Times:

“Weaponry seized from dissident republicans has been growing steadily more sophisticated over the past five years, according to gardaí.

Assistant commissioner John O’Mahony, who leads the force’s crime and security division, told reporters there was also evidence of increased sophistication in the activities of dissident republicans.

During the briefing, members of the Garda ballistics unit showcased a range of weapons seized from dissident republicans.

They included a beer keg bomb recovered from Kilcurry in May 2014, mortars, sniper rifles, AK47 rifles, associated ammunition, a phone trigger circuit, timer power units, rockets and a sample of explosives.

Mr O’Mahony said the three main dissident groups operating in the Republic were the Real IRA, the Continuity IRA, and Óglaigh na hÉireann.

He said that while the number of dissident republicans is small, they are “very focused and very clear” in their objectives. “As a result of that, we spend a significant amount of time and resources combating their activities,” he said.

Mr O’Mahony said that “idealism and peer pressure” were the most common mechanisms used by dissidents to recruit followers.

“We’ve seen in the history of this country that there will be somebody there to replace others,” he said.

“We are finding that as we disrupt one area, there are people ready to take over. I can tell you that in just the last two years, we have over 30 firearms seized, over 1,000 rounds of ammunition, a number of mortars and rocket-launchers. One very significant find in the last few years was in Co Dublin where we had a significant seizure of semtex explosive.”

To be clear, the “range of weapons” put on display covered the years 2014-15 and came from the counties of Cork, Mayo, Limerick, Waterford, Wexford, Kildare and Dublin. Aside from one interesting development, which will be discussed below, the mixed bag of thirty firearms, some one thousand rounds of assorted and heavily corroded ammunition, several kilos of rotted explosives and various projectile parts or devices featured nothing particularly new or startling. Quite literally. Though described in most newspaper reports as “machine guns” what was actually shown in the conference were two Kalashnikov AK47 automatic assault rifles and three AKM rifles, a superior Czech-produced variant of the Russian AK47 and the default squad-level weapon of the (Provisional) Irish Republican Army in the 1980s and ’90s. Indeed these guns, in relatively poor shape judging by the photographic and video evidence, were almost certainly taken from previous (P)IRA stocks at the end of the 20th century and are nearly three decades old (most of which they will have spent sitting in damp underground containers). Added to these were an ancient Sten submachine gun, a UK-made weapon dating to the 1950s or ’60s, and a bolt-action hunting rifle.

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