Monaghan bomb discovery shows no complacency in policing dissident republicans, says Drew Harris

The discovery of a Semtex car bomb in Co Monaghan shows An Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) were not “complacent” in the face of the threat posed by dissident republicans, former Garda commissioner Drew Harris has said.Speaking at the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Donegal on Saturday, Harris, who retired last September, said the news of the Carrickmacross seizure had left him “somewhat shocked”.“News like this is always shocking. Thirty years ago, it might have made the inner pages. But now it’s so unusual that genuinely people were very surprised and shocked, taken aback,” he said.However, the intelligence-led operation by the Garda Special Detective Unit that led to the seizure of the car bomb that was being taken to Derry showed the level of co-operation existing between the Garda and the PSNI.READ MORE“Undoubtedly, major damage or terrible injury, indeed death, has been avoided. So that’s always a positive, and that’s a good thing for us. The longer we can get from this extreme violence, the less that we have of it, then that is a public good,” he said.On Friday, 25-year-old law student Isobella Perrie Sullivan, of Abbeylands Park, Clane, Co Kildare, was granted bail at a Co Meath court hearing where she was charged with possession of explosives.In court, a Garda officer outlined how Perrie Sullivan had been stopped by gardaí on the N2 at Aclint, Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, suspected to be involved “in IRA operational activity”.During a search of her vehicle, a bag was discovered in the rear seat that contained Semtex and a detonator, the court heard, prompting the area to be evacuated. Another suspect, a man in his 40s, remained in custody at a Garda station in the Dublin area.