How do they know it was Semtex the Provos had,did it have PIRA stamped on it

Originally Posted by inchicore_republican

How do they know it was Semtex the Provos had,did it have PIRA stamped on it

"Produce of Libya. BEST BEFORE: 1994 USE BY DATE: 1997"

In fairness some people think the IRA are an extraordinary outfit capable of decommisioning all the semtex in the world.How scared were some of these people of the IRA.Its surprising that the IRA went down the peace process route when you consider how powerful they were in the minds of some.

There is an IRA statement on record declaring that at the time of the departures from the organisation that led to the creation of the RIRA that a number of weapons and material had gone missing.

Originally Posted by Kf

Originally Posted by Aindriu

Originally Posted by Kf

Considering that the IRA's semtex was part of the Libyan batch and that is about thirty years old and so way past its sell by date its no wonder that the semtex didn't explode.

Yet another demonstration of the military incompotence of the dissidents.

As for the attempt to hu ha this into something significant and sinister by the IRA I for one never imagined that the IRA were going to able to collect and destroyed every ounce of material from the arms dumps.

They didn't collect anything though. They filled the dumps with concrete from mixers.

Really, well since you are the only one to know what actually happened, aside from the IRA reps, General de Chastelain and the concrete mixer drivers, perhaps you can write a book about the Decomissiong. I for one would buy it, actually probably two, as I could give one to my brother in the US as a present.

Do you really think they destroyed every weapon and gramme of explosive? If you do you are either extremely naive or dense. As Pat McL has just said the IRA admitted that weapons and materials had gone missing.

Originally Posted by PatMcL

There is an IRA statement on record declaring that at the time of the departures from the organisation that led to the creation of the RIRA that a number of weapons and material had gone missing.

Fekin hell. It's P. O Neill and he's also banning all the bonfires. Get all that firewood decommissioned and for gods sake all those lorry tyres. Mind that that Dunclug crowd don't get a hold of them or there will be bonfires in 10 years time. It's bad for the environment. Republican Eco-warriors!!

Originally Posted by bullyee

Originally Posted by PatMcL

There is an IRA statement on record declaring that at the time of the departures from the organisation that led to the creation of the RIRA that a number of weapons and material had gone missing.

Fekin hell. It's P. O Neill and he's also banning all the bonfires. Get all that firewood decommissioned and for gods sake all those lorry tyres. Mind that that Dunclug crowd don't get a hold of them or there will be bonfires in 10 years time. It's bad for the environment. Republican Eco-warriors!!

Welcome to the thread Mr Murray, why did you go on the missing list?

This is not the first time Semtex was used in attacks. The IRA claimed they used semtex in a number of attacks including the most recent under-car bomb attack in Tyrone. It was rumoured around 10-20 pound of semtex was used in an attack on Ebrington Barracks around 2001 injuring 2 soldiers .Romanian Kalishnikovs from Provo stocks were also used in a number of attacks and can be seen in many propaganda vids. And several Provo made horizontal mortars also cropped up. Govt. spokesmen and military media spokesmen put a lid on this until DUP/PSF relations were sufficiently thawed.
Whats crystal clear however is that these weapons are NOT donated by serving Provo vols. Only hatred passes between each group unfortunately. They tend to come from former Provisonals and supporters who know the identities of dumps which the P leadership forgot about or were unaware of.
Post decommissioning,MI5 in recent talks with Ghadaffis regime tried to attain an inventory of weapons sent to Ireland, in order to ascertain what exactly is still floating about in Ireland. As far as I know, Libya gave them a detailed response.

Originally Posted by PatMcL

Originally Posted by bullyee

Originally Posted by PatMcL

There is an IRA statement on record declaring that at the time of the departures from the organisation that led to the creation of the RIRA that a number of weapons and material had gone missing.

Fekin hell. It's P. O Neill and he's also banning all the bonfires. Get all that firewood decommissioned and for gods sake all those lorry tyres. Mind that that Dunclug crowd don't get a hold of them or there will be bonfires in 10 years time. It's bad for the environment. Republican Eco-warriors!!

Welcome to the thread Mr Murray, why did you go on the missing list?

Even university Pro-vice chancellors are entitled to a holiday. I was up in the wilds of donegal. i saw lots of tractor wheel marks in the bogs. Don't worry i wasn't lookin for arm's dumps. just up diggin turf as the cost of home heating oil is sky high.

Originally Posted by PatMcL

Originally Posted by bullyee

Originally Posted by PatMcL

There is an IRA statement on record declaring that at the time of the departures from the organisation that led to the creation of the RIRA that a number of weapons and material had gone missing.

Fekin hell. It's P. O Neill and he's also banning all the bonfires. Get all that firewood decommissioned and for gods sake all those lorry tyres. Mind that that Dunclug crowd don't get a hold of them or there will be bonfires in 10 years time. It's bad for the environment. Republican Eco-warriors!!

Welcome to the thread Mr Murray, why did you go on the missing list?

It would appear that the attempted attack was with a shoulder-fired, horizontal mortar. Going by the news reports the warhead never left the launch tube. This could be due to a number of factors; either they cut the powder-charge too low as they were afraid of the risk to the person firing it, the powder charge was tampered with or it was another dick-waving exercise. Whichever it was, it certainly wasn't worth the jailtime those involved in it were risking; particularly when history and the 'damp sqib' nature of the launcher would suggest that a Paddy Murray-type character was involved at some level.