Gardai believe the heavy machineguns found in a field in Monaghan on Thursday are part of the same Provisional IRA arsenal discovered last October.
The two .50 Browning heavy machineguns and a .30 Browning general purpose machinegun were put on display at the scene of the find yesterday.
The isolated field in Colgagh townland is six miles north of Carrickmacross, in sight of a British army observation post on the Border with Armagh.
The large plastic pipe which held the guns and a tin box of ammunition for both weapons had been hidden more than a foot down in an old dry-stone wall. The ammunition included spent cartridges for the smaller weapon and spent cartridges from AK47 rifles, although no rifles were found. Some of the larger-calibre ammunition was tipped with tracer material for night firing.
A senior Garda source said the farmer who owned the land was not believed to have known the arms were there. Under legislation introduced after the Omagh bomb, the Garda can apply for the seizure of lands or property suspected of being used to store or make weapons.
Supt Tom Flannery, of Carrickmacross, said there was nothing to indicate any connection between the weapons and the Omagh bomb. The find is less than half-a-mile from a hide found last October during the Omagh investigation. Gardai then found six rifles, a machinegun, handguns and bomb and mortar parts buried in two barrels.
Supt Flannery said the weapons would be examined to see if they had been used in terrorist attacks. Both guns can fire around 500 rounds a minute, and the .30 Browning has a 1km range.
Insp Noel Cunningham, co-ordinator of the divisional search team of gardai from Cavan and Monaghan, said the search of lands in the area would continue. The tripods without which the three machineguns are usually inoperable may be buried in another arms bunker.
The three machineguns had been placed in a large plastic drainage pipe sealed at both ends with wire mesh coated in tar. The weapons and ammunition appeared to be dry, although the ammunition box was badly rusted.
A number of ammunition clips and small batteries were also found, although there were no bomb parts or incendiary devices enclosed in the tube.
