A man has been arrested by gardaí investigating the murder of Larry Keane in Athy, Co Kildare last week.
The 47-year-old was arrested in the Athy area this morning at 7am.
He is currently detained at Kildare Garda station under the provisions of section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984.
Keane died in the early hours of July 19th after being found badly beaten in Athy.
He was a prominent member of the Republican movement who had convictions for bombing and remained supportive of dissident republicanism in recent years.
The 56-year-old father of six, who served in the Army from 1974 to 1980 including a stint in Lebanon, was found unconscious with serious head injuries in a laneway.
Paramedics treated him at the scene before he was taken by ambulance to Naas General Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
In 1998 he was caught by gardaí driving a car bomb twice the size of the Omagh bomb onto a car ferry in Dún Laoghaire, south Dublin.
The bomb was bound for England but Keane from Cloney, Athy, claimed at the time he was transporting it for payment and denied he was a member of any illegal organisation.
Last September he was a prominent figure among mourners at the funeral in Donaghmede, north Dublin, of Real IRA leader Alan Ryan who was shot dead in Dublin.