THE IRISH OBSERVER: Continuity IRA Arrest Cavan

Friday, January 29, 2021

Continuity IRA Arrest Cavan

An Garda Siochana Special Detective Unit have arrested a man in County Cavan 29 January, 2021, who is alleged to be the leader of Continuity IRA in Cavan/Fermanagh. The arrest comes after a two-week security operation in the Wattle-bridge area of the Cavan/Fermanagh border, which involved close co-operation between An Garda Siochana and their colleagues in The PSNI.

Continuity IRA Threat 2021

Continuity IRA Cavan/Fermanagh

Continuity IRA had made a number of claims that they had planted an explosive device and also that they had used a Dragunov sniper rifle to fire several rounds at a PSNI helicopter. However, following a two-week security alert it now appears that the alleged explosive device was a hoax and there is no evidence that a sniper rifle was used for any attack. Four rounds of ammunition that had not been fired, were left at the scene, this police believe was a ‘stunt’.

Dragunov sniper rifle

John Connolly, the alleged leader of a Continuity IRA (CIRA) unit in Cavan/Fermanagh, is suspected of scattering bullets held in an old arm dump around the scene of last week's border security alert.

The man arrested today 29 January, 2021, Gardai say he is a senior dissident republican and is understood to be connected to a home-made bomb left in the Wattlebridge area of Co Fermanagh.

He was arrested after a joint Garda-PSNI joint security operation following the discovery of a suspicious device left at a bus shelter.

This Improvised Explosive Device (IED) which was discovered on 13 Jan, 2021, led to a two-week long alert as heavily armed PSNI and British soldiers flooded the area.

The Continuity IRA claimed they opened fire on a police helicopter the evening after the device was found , however, it turned out that no evidence could be found to confirm such an attack on a helicopter and no PSNI helicopter was in the area.

Officers from An Garda Siochana’s Special Detective Unit, are quizzing the suspect at Cavan Garda Station. He is being held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

It has been very clear over the past three-years that senior Gardai have put in place a network of specialist Garda Units across the counties that border Northern Ireland to stifle the activity of Sinn Fein/PIRA criminality and the Proxies that they use to engage in violent attacks.

The suspect arrested today 29 January, 2021, is being quizzed about the hoax device and about membership of an illegal organisation.