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The Finnstown Hotel (CC licensed image by Erin Khoo:Flickr)Was huge Dublin bomb intended for attack on Giro d'Italia?
Anti-terrorist detectives in Dublin uncovered a huge bomb that was primed and ready to be detonated on Saturday night, leading to speculation that the bombers’ intended target was stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia, which arrived in Dublin on Sunday.
"This was a deadly, full-size bomb which had been wired up and ready for imminent use. If it had gone off it would have caused total devastation," a source told the Irish Independent.
The bomb was concealed in a milk churn in a car in the car park of the Finnstown Country House hotel in Lucan, Co Dublin. It contained 50lb of explosives made from fertiliser and had a timer attached.
The device was found after a 999 call to gardai at about 8.40pm on Saturday night.
Dissident republicans are suspected of transporting the bomb from Belfast to Dublin recently. It is believed the device was going to be moved from the Lucan car park to its intended target.
Although a man with links to the Real IRA has been arrested, it has not been confirmed that the Dublin finish of stage 3 of the Giro d’Italia was the target. But security sources believe that the bombers may have planned to stage a city centre atrocity to attract worldwide attention.
With hundreds of thousands of fans lining the streets of Dublin for the Giro and a worldwide audience estimated at up to 125 million, an attack on the race would certainly have fulfilled that aim.
According to security sources, the device, made safe by an Army Bomb Squad, was fitted with a Timer Power Unit, a hallmark of all major IRA bombs. Also known as a "safe to arm" switch, the TPU can be set to detonate at a given time, which can range from a few hours to several days or even months after it is set.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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40 comments
Looks like the Indo has changed it's angle on the story :
http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/irish-newspaper-that-linked-dubl...
Too late though-the damage has already been done
I've just come back from a long weekend trip to Northern Ireland to cycle and watch the Giro.
Whilst I am not suggesting we bury our heads in the sands about the issues that still exist, these types of articles give off a completely wrong impression of the area and Road.cc should think about the damage it may cause before publishing stuff like this, I'm not interested in journalism or freedom, this is a cycling web site which should promote and not damage.
I can hand on heart say that the weekend was amazing and I've never had such a friendly welcome and made to feel special. From the local shop keeper, to other cyclists, bar staff, people in the street, all genuinely interested in where we had come from and thanked us for supporting Northern Ireland.
The place is beautiful, the roads smooth and quiet, when we did see a car they moved as far over to the other side of the road as possible, it was a fantastic experience, we never saw any trouble, we drank in Belfast city centre, a lovely friendly place with lots of happy drunks including us.
So well done to Northern Ireland and thanks a million for giving us a brilliant time.
Hear hear.
Classic example of Betteridge's Law of Headlines.
Helping crappy journalists post crappy stories since forever.
I don't agree with that rule and as a journalist, that's not why I use a question mark on a headline. I use question marks either because there's an element of doubt, or because something unproven, or as a legal get out. In this last instance, the question mark means it's possible to raise an issue, without actually saying that's the case. The exclamation mark is used by journalists for the same reason - 'Freddie Starr ate my hamster!' - which basically says that the journalist doesn't believe a word of this spurious claim either but is running the story because it'll grab attention and sell issues. Betteridge's law is out of date.
Probably best to just remember the crowds turning out in their numbers to enjoy a fantastic spectacle rather than speculate and focus on the actions or non actions of a tiny rabid minority. Sport has served to build so many bridges around the world and cycling is no different.
Does anyone know the RIRA's stance on helmets?
Or Rapha?
Am still in Belfast and the local news is saying that the vehicle was heading north in view of disrupting the elections. The Giro was never the target (or ever going to be) the _Kaner will probably verify this one
I was about to say the same thing.
Another story to try and keep you scared most probably...
I was in Belfast too recently. It's fine. Northern Ireland has made amazing progress in the last 15 - 20 years.
MKultra, we don't know much about this guy. According to the Indo, their /source/ says he has "links" to RIRA people, however that could apply to a lot of people who aren't necessarily in the RIRA (e.g. PIRA, criminal figures, people's family, etc). Note that newspaper sources aren't always right.
Tony: The man is said by the Indo to be from Dublin's inner city. However, those in the North of Ireland all automatically have claim to Irish citizenship. Note that more than a few people there would dispute they are UK citizens. Which is partly why Irish citizens have close to the same rights (e.g. vote) as UK citizens in UK (UK citizens similarly historically have had stronger rights than other nationals in the south).
The UK and the Republic may technically be separate countries, but they're still more closely joined at the hip than most other neighbouring countries.
Road.cc- surely the first rule of article writing is not to rely on a single source as has been done here (the Independent.ie story)- most other coverage of the incident not based on that source make no link to the Giro. There are still arms and explosives seizures over here linked to dissidents taking place every now and then-it just so happened that this one coincided with the Giro. After all,when seizures happen in Belfast or Dublin when international soccer and rugby matches are happening, the stories aren't linked.
There's no evidence at this time this bomb was going to be detonated in Dublin. Indeed, there's no evidence at this time it was intended to be detonated at all (back in the day, bombs might be planted, but then a warning given - the bomb wouldn't be detonated, the intention was just to demonstrate the capability).
Further, that someone heard from someone else who briefly worked in Dublin that some factory had regular bomb threats phoned in, doesn't really mean that much. There could be an element of hyperbole to these stories, and there might be an element of naughty kids to whatever parts of it are true.
Bombs being detonated in the south of Ireland has been a very rare occurrence, even in the worst day. Bombs being detonated *anywhere* in Ireland, even in the North, is thankfully very rare these days.
As for idiotic comments on bringing back the war on terror, it's moronic thinking like that that stokes terrorism. It was true in Ireland. It's been proven true again by the UK/US actions in Afghanistan. Dialogue and building understanding between people who otherwise greatly dislike each other, so as to settle differences and find solutions in non-violent ways, is the way forward for building peaceful, civil societies.
The drooling morons who think otherwise are the most dangerous people on this planet, IMO.
I hate to say this but I think you are wrong.
You can't compare this event with those of the troubles when the PIRA where active and the army council were instructing the bombers to call in a warning. Disruption of daily life was the name of the game then not simply killing people.
The people behind this are the Real IRA loons who refused to engage in the peace process, they were also the same savages behind the Omagh bombing. They would have no compunction in bombing an event south of the border. As far as they are concerned both Ireland and Northern Ireland are targets as they have no love for either government.
Mindless utterly mindless.
Finnstown House is not sufficiently close to Dublin to have caused any damage, if that was the intended detonation point, during the Giro. I am not party to any logistics of the accomodation for any team members/affiliates of the race so cannot comment on who a likely target may have been.
Comments made by KCR (above) are the most likely grounds for something of this nature.
But I'd wait to see who claims it and for what purposes it was intended..especially as it was noted as being a fertilizer based device...sounds a bit rudimentary (although just as effective as a scare tactic) in comparison to modern devices....
Just glad it was found/disabled and nobody was hurt.
I work close by, but have not seen any real uptick in gardai patrols etc...who knows...
fuck Ireland. they are their own worst enemies.
the country doesnt deserve to have any high profile events until they can get their house in order.
maybe the 'war on terror' should be brought back from afganistan and a little closer to home?
Well by that logic there wouldn't be any high profile events over here either would there Russy? Given that all the most recent homegrown terrorist atrocities in the British Isles have happened on this side of the Irish Sea.
Also Dublin is the capital of the Irish Republic a separate country, and the alleged bomber is from Northern Ireland - part of the UK. So although the bomber wouldn't like to think of it in these terms we are effectively talking about a British citizen planting a bomb in a foreign country.
The bomb wasn't in the vicinity of the Giro - which is why our story says that the link was merely speculative.
Finally, I'm sure a lot of the Irish users of this site find your opening remark both ignorant and offensive.
I take great exception to that comment. Both Northern Ireland and the Republic did a grand job on hosting the Giro. There was an amazing buzz about the place. I was back home for it and from the build up to the presentation right through to the peleton hitting Dublin it was incredible. Streets were six and seven deep in places. People with no interest in cycling stood in the rain for hours to see the bunch roll by. In places it didn't matter if it moved or not it was painted pink. This is the third major event that Northern Ireland has successfully hosted. The G8, the world police and fire games being the previous two.
You really cannot tar a collective 5 million odd people with the same brush over the actions of a handful of individuals who do not represent the vast majority of either country. I get the feeling that you are probably one of those individuals who would have branded me as a terrorist due to my having a Belfast accent during the height of the troubles. And your small-minded comment is as bad as the small-mindedness attitudes demonstrated by the dissidents who do not want the country to move on.
I am incredibly proud of my home city over its accomplishment this weekend. As is probably any body else from the north and south. And I am sure that anyone on the forum who travelled to either Belfast or Dublin will echo our sentiments.
Is there a admin on this site that can remove offensive and borderline racist comments from this user
What a prat.
At least in Dublin a soldier can walk down the street without having his head sawn off by some Muslim fundamentalists.
And you say 'fuck them'? You need to look a LOT closer to home...
What a prat.
At least in Dublin a soldier can walk down the street without having his head sawn off by some Muslim fundamentalists.
And you say 'fuck them'? You need to look a LOT closer to home...
What a prat.
At least in Dublin a soldier can walk down the street without having his head sawn off by some Muslim fundamentalists.
And you say 'fuck them'? You need to look a LOT closer to home...
Christ, I had intended to take my family over. We actually cancelled the ferry and hotels bookings a couple of weeks ago to save money, but this is crazy.
We were originally going to go to Dublin, but then changed to Belfast with the TT and first stage in mind. I'd actually talked to a friend who is from Belfast, she'd said "Ah you'll be fine, the hotels and places you'll be at will be great, you won't even see political graffiti from there" - but I would have expected even less risk down south in Dublin.
We were in Belfast for Stage 1 on Friday. We walked around a fair bit of the city centre, as well as part of the route along the Newtownards Road. At no point did we feel at any 'risk' or even uncomfortable; the people were unfailingly friendly and welcoming. The event was brilliantly organised, and really embraced by the people of the city.
Simmo, you should get yourself to Northern Ireland, and see for yourself just how pleasant it is. There are parts of Belfast and (London)Derry that are a bit scary still, and you can certainly find interesting murals in both cities.
But it is a fantastic place with great scenery, nice people and great food. Just needs better weather!
Nothing like getting the world on your side by killing citizens from dozens of countries......feckin idiots. Even if it was just a threat it put hundreds of people at risk. These people are sick.
My dad worked in Dublin many many years ago and it was a daily occurrence of bomb threats and that was at the Guiness factory. All the threats were from republicans......
Regardless of who was to blame for this bomb its absolutely disgusting.
Interesting signature message, in light of your comment...
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