The arrests

Gardaí arrested two men on the Cooley Peninsula in County Louth after a search carried out by detectives from the Special Detective Unit on the night of Thursday, 22 October 2026. Follow-up searches continued on Friday, 23 October. The operation is part of a long-running investigation into the New IRA, which the Garda National Crime and Security Intelligence Service (GNCSIS) runs from Garda Headquarters. The men, one in his 50s and one in his 20s, are held at garda stations in the north-east under the Offences Against the State Act, 1939. The GNCSIS operation drew on the National Surveillance Unit, the Emergency Response Unit and the Special Detective Unit, along with the Garda Security Service, the intelligence wing of the GNCSIS.

What investigators found

Officers recovered component parts and suspected explosive material from the hide. The Defence Forces' Explosive Ordnance Disposal team was called in on Friday morning, 23 October, to examine the site and its contents. Sources told the Irish Examiner that the find included significant bomb parts, while details of everything recovered had not yet been made public. The older suspect is described as a suspected bomb maker for the group and has past republican convictions. Security sources link the arrest to a suspected car bomb seized in County Monaghan in July 2026, which contained around 400g of Semtex. Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly described the find in a statement from Garda HQ.

“This is a particularly significant find.”

The New IRA's wider campaign

The New IRA has been linked to a crude bomb that failed to detonate at Lurgan PSNI barracks in March, and to a car bomb that exploded outside Dunmurry police station in Belfast. Garda intelligence suggests the group has restructured, particularly its Dublin branch, where new leadership is directing operations in the capital. A senior security source described the operation as "very significant" and an "important disruption" of terrorist activity. Gardaí say the investigation into the group has been building since the explosive seizure in July 2026.

Reaction from Northern Ireland

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher welcomed the seizure and said the PSNI would keep working closely with An Garda Síochána against dissident republican groups. He said the police work had prevented serious harm or loss of life.

“This excellent police work has prevented serious harm or loss of life.”

Kelly said he had been in contact with Boutcher about the find, and that the two forces had reaffirmed their joint commitment to tackling dissident groups. In the same statement he said the threat must be pushed back further.

“We must continue to degrade and dismantle the threat from those who are intent on destroying peace by harming others.”

What remains open

The two men remain in custody under the 1939 Act, and examinations of the hide's contents were still under way on Friday, 23 October. The Garda statement described the search as part of a long-running investigation by the Special Detective Unit. The arrests and seizure follow an earlier operation in which gardaí stopped a car in County Monaghan in July and seized a large military-grade bomb linked to the same group.