Dissident republicans have disrupted the security operation around Queen Elizabeth's State visit to the Republic with six incidents involving hoax and viable explosives devices and bomb threats against court houses.
There were a number of scuffles reported after about supporters of republican group Éirígí staged a protest outside the GPO on O’Connell Street in Dublin under a heavy Garda presence.
Dissidents telephoned a coded warning call to the PSNI in Belfast this morning claiming bombs had been planted in the Republic in courthouses in Dundalk, Maynooth and Drogheda.
While the courthouses were cleared by gardaí and searched nothing was found. Court sittings have since resumed.
The only incident that involved a viable device occurred last night in Maynooth, Co Kildare, when a search of bus yielded a pipe bomb.
The coach was contracted by Bus Éireann and was carrying about 35 passengers from Ballina, Co Mayo, to Dublin when calls were received by gardaí warning of a bomb on board.
The bus was then stopped in Maynooth and passengers taken off. During a search of a luggage hold, gardai found a viable pipe bomb just after 11pm as the bus and area around it were sealed off outside the Glen Royal Hotel.
While all of the components to make a bomb were present the device was not primed. Army bomb disposal experts were called in and declared the area safe just after 1am.
This morning there was a further security alert on the Luas red line in Dublin when a suspect device was found onboard near Davitt Road in Inchicore, south Dublin.
The Luas at the centre of the scare was evacuated and all Luas services along the canal were cancelled for a period.
Army bomb disposal experts examined the device, which was found to be a hoax and not viable.
At around 11am another hoax device was found in Fairview Park, north Dublin. A crude device made up of wiring and a mobile phone was left in a plastic bag at the base of statue of the former republican leader Sean Russell.
Gardaí sealed off the area immediately but the area was declared safe just over an hour later.
Rail services are returning to normal after a security alert at Drogheda earlier today. Phoenix Park station has reopened after being closed while the Queen was being driven to Áras an Uachtaráin.
Meanwhile, a security alert in the Tower Centre, Ballymena this afternoon was declared a hoax.
