Bomb Found on Bus ahead of Queen’s Visit to Ireland

Added by Tania Sullivan on May 18, 2011

A bomb has been defused outside of Dublin by Irish soldiers ahead of Tuesday’s visit by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Irish police and the military reports.

A police spokesman said on Tuesday that police had a received an anonymous tip-off that led police to the bomb that was found outside of Dublin. “A viable explosive device was found on a bus yesterday evening in Maynooth [near Dublin],” the spokesman said.

The device was subsequently defused by the Irish army.

A spokesman for the Irish Defence Force confirmed that an army bomb disposal team had made safe “a viable improvised device” on location early on Tuesday morning, at Maynooth in County Kildare.

“We can’t give any details about the device but it was viable. It was on a bus and by the time our team was called in the bus was evacuated and parked at a bus stop,” the spokesman said.

The scheduled visit by the queen is the first by a British monarch since Ireland gained independence in 1922. It has been surrounded by an extensive security operation to deal with threats of Irish republican terrorism.

Central London received a bomb threat on Monday from Irish dissident republicans, British police reported.