Irish soldiers defused a bomb near Dublin overnight ahead of a historic visit by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II scheduled to start on Tuesday, Irish police and the military said.
“A viable explosive device was found on a bus yesterday evening [Monday] in Maynooth,” near Dublin, a police spokesperson said, adding that police had been tipped off by an anonymous call.
The device was defused by the Irish army, he said.
An Irish defence forces spokesperson confirmed that an army bomb-disposal squad had made safe “a viable improvised device” early on Tuesday at Maynooth in County Kildare.
“We can’t give any details about the device but it was viable. It was on a bus and by the time our team was called in the bus was evacuated and parked at a bus stop,” the spokesperson said.
“The device was made safe in situ,” he added.
The queen’s visit, the first by a British monarch to Ireland since independence in 1922, is surrounded by a massive security operation amid the threat of Irish republican terrorism.
Visit to go ahead
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said there was no chance the visit would be cancelled despite the discovery of the bomb, adding that police and the army had dealt with it in an “appropriate and efficient manner”.
“Obviously when this visit was first indicated to Buckingham Palace and they responded to the president’s invitation there would be no going back on that,” Kenny told RTE state radio.
“This is an historic and symbolic visit and it is dealing with the conclusion of the past and a message for the future,” he added.
“These things happen when global personalities visit any countries … and whether it be Ireland or other countries, adequate security arrangements are put in place.”
Britain’s Foreign Office and Buckingham Palace, the queen’s official residence, both confirmed the queen’s visit would carry on.
“Nothing has changed, the state visit is still going ahead,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said.
British police said they had received a bomb threat for central London from Irish dissident republicans on Monday. — AFP