Bomber's target house being built by UUP peer
16 August 2006
An attempt to bomb a home being built by one of Ireland's richest men sparked off fears last night of renewed dissident violence in border areas.
Bombers targeted the mansion under construction for former senator Edward Haughey - also Lord Ballyedmond - in the townland of Dungooley, near Hackballscross, in the republican heartland on the Louth/south Armagh border. His estimated fortune has been put at €520m.
The 70lb device comprised of homemade explosives was found yesterday and had been planted inside the walls of the house.
It failed to go off, but explosive experts confirmed that had the detonation succeeded it would have caused massive damage.
The gas-cylinder bomb was discovered yesterday by a worker making a check on the building, which he had last done about a week ago. An attempt to blow up the house could have happened anytime in the past week.
The bomb was beside one of the walls of the house. It was made up of crushed fertiliser along with a booster. A command wire snaked down a lane leading up to the premises for about 100ft, but failed to detonate the main charge.
One source said the device slightly activated but did not blow up. An army spokesman said that had it exploded it would have caused extensive damage.
An army bomb disposal team from Gormanstown worked at the scene for about two hours yesterday and managed to make the device safe. The improvised, home-made bomb was found shortly before 1pm.
Gardai were last night trying to pinpoint a motive for the attack in the volatile border region. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern condemned those behind the incident.
He said an incident such as this was a matter of concern and was now the subject of a full garda investigation. It came less than a week after incendiary bombers caused millions of pounds worth of damage in attacks on shops in Newry, Co Down. Nine stores were hit, four extensively, when fires broke out in the early hours of the morning.
The mansion is only a short distance from where the PSNI found explosives planted near the main Dublin-Belfast rail line at the weekend raising fears that a new terror campaign in border areas is underway.
Train services were disrupted and traffic was also diverted from the Newry by-pass as a result of the bomb alert at a bridge near the railway. Controlled explosions were carried out by the British Army earlier in the week in the area to deal with the bombs. The attack on the rail link was claimed by the Real IRA last Saturday.
The townland of Dungooley was the scene of a ferocious gun battle between Republicans, British security forces and gardai in the mid-70s.
Dr Eddie Haughey (62) emigrated to the US in the 60s but returned four years later to set up the hugely successful Norbrook Laboratories. The company now employs 1,300 people worldwide, 1,000 of them in Northern Ireland, and has a annual turnover of more than €121m. Haughey was nominated to the Seanad in 1994, and again in 1997.
He has been a member of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation and the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body since 1997.
In 2004, Dr Haughey was made a life peer as Baron Ballyedmond, of Mourne in the County of Down and sits in the House of Lords on behalf of the Ulster Unionist Party.
Over the past number of years, he has donated several million pounds to the British Conservative Party. Locals said his mansion at Dungooley has been under construction for about five years. But the roof is still not on the building.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/ ... ory=702677
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Originally Posted by zoinks
Showing your political naivety, Zoinks.