Gardaí have discovered an IRA training camp in a remote part of County Monaghan.
Acting on intelligence reports Gardaí carried out a number of searches prior to locating the Irish Republican Army (IRA) camp inside an isolated pine plantation in the Scotstown area of north County Monaghan.
Gardaí found sleeping quarters and a munitions storage area with hundreds of rounds of live ammunition, a Kalashnikov assault rifle and mortars known colloquially as barrack busters.
The training camp included two firing ranges. One had been used by the IRA for a horizontal-type mortar which is fired from the shoulder. The second range was constructed underground, it was designed so that guns could be fired through two long tubes, from either a lying or kneeling position.
Almost 1,000 empty shells showed that it has been used extensively for firing Kalashnikov rifles.
Garda Chief Superintendent Colm Rooney described the discovery as significant, as
It disrupts their activities in the short term.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 30 March 1997. The reporter is Tom McCaughren.
