Gardai have identified a former top Provisional IRA explosives expert as the manufacturer of an under-car bomb seized by detectives in Dublin last week.
The bomb was primed and ready for use against a targeted renegade republican in a feud between dissident splinter groups in the capital and on the border.
The identification of the bomb-maker has heightened concerns among senior anti-terrorist officers about the role of former Provisional activists in criminality in the wake of the Northern peace deal.
The explosives expert is from outside Newry but lives in Dundalk. He played a major role in the IRA's terror campaign along the border in the 1980s and 1990s and was believed to have been heavily involved in the mortar attack which killed nine RUC officers at Newry police station in February 1985.
he joined the real ira after a dissagreement with the Provos .
since then he has been involved in robberies and suspected in a couple of deaths and drug trafficking
In recent months he has headed up a criminal outfit that comprised members of the Real IRA in Dundalk, the INLA in south and west Dublin and ordinary criminals
but there has been a falling out over the proceeds of fundraisers
i can remember the last fued that the inla was involved in there was a lot of blood spilled if i recall. but it show s that theres a lot of dangerous men on both side's who have nt given up on violence and should be back inside where they belong.