Irish police have revealed they are currently monitoring 13 separate dissident republican cells across the country, amid concerns over continued paramilitary activity linked to splinter groups from the IRA. The disclosure came as gardaí said they had thwarted a major bomb plot targeting a location across the Irish border, underlining the ongoing security threat posed by dissident factions more than two decades after the Good Friday Agreement.

Specialist officers involved in counter-terrorism operations described the scale of the threat as significant, with the 13 cells reportedly operating with varying degrees of capability and intent. Full details of the foiled bomb attack, including the intended target and those arrested or questioned, were not fully provided in the available report, though the case has been described by gardaí as a serious and credible threat that was successfully disrupted before it could be carried out.