Police have said that a "huge car bomb was found in Dublin hours before the climax of the Irish leg of the Giro d'Italia cycle race," according to Henry McDonald of the London GUARDIAN. The 50-pound bomb, "which was made from fertiliser mix, was discovered on Saturday night in the car park of a hotel in Lucan, west Dublin." The car had "Belfast-registered number plates." Dissident "republicans are being blamed for the device, although it is understood the hotel was not their target." A Belfast man "was arrested on Sunday in the Irish capital in connection with the bomb and is being questioned by detectives." Irish police force Garda found "bomb-making material, including mercury tilt switches, in a follow-up search at a property in central Dublin on Sunday" (GUARDIAN, 5/12). In a follow-up, McDonald reported the bomb "was destined for a republican dissident attack across the border" (GUARDIAN, 5/12). In Dublin, Williams & Byrne reported a source said, "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." Security sources said that the device, "made safe by an Army Bomb Squad, would have caused carnage if it had exploded." It 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." The alarm was raised at about 8:40pm on Saturday night in a "999 call" to Garda. Garda and the army's Explosive Ordinance Disposal unit "arrived a short time afterwards and ordered that the hotel be evacuated" at around 10:30pm (IRISH INDEPENDENT, 5/12).
DISSIDENT REPUBLICANS SUSPECTED: In London, Graham Hutson reported "dissident republicans are suspected of having transported the device from Belfast to Dublin, and believe that it would have been moved from the Lucan car park to its intended target." A security source said that the device "could have been the work of dissident republicans who would have hoped that the attack would be blamed on another terrorist group." The source said, "It cannot be ruled out that it may have been intended to disrupt the Giro d'Italia race. This would be a very dramatic escalation in the activities of dissident republicans" (LONDON TIMES, 5/12).
