City blast 'sparked by row'
Criminal's quarrel with mother-in-law blamed for grenade thrown at house
Gardai conduct door-to-door enquiries after a hand grenade was thrown in Park Terrace in the Coombe area of the city late on Tuesday night.
Thursday June 28 2007
A MILITARY grenade attack in Dublin's south inner city may have stemmed from a dispute between a criminal and his mother-in-law.
A former INLA leader, who is the prime suspect for a terrorist murder in Britain, is believed to have been behind the blast.
The grenade exploded at Park Terrace, in the heart of the Coombe district of the city, shortly before midnight on Tuesday.
More than a hundred people were evacuated from their homes. Detectives are working on the theory that the blast is an escalation of a relatively minor row between a criminal and his mother-in-law.
They believe that others were drawn into the dispute, including the former INLA activist, and that this led to a row between a group of men in a local pub.
The grenade is thought to have been thrown in the direction of a home. However, it exploded without causing damage.
An anonymous telephone caller to the Samaritans subsequently claimed that other devices had been left in the area and gardai carried out searches.
They became concerned at around 3.30am when they spotted a suspicious bag and called in an Army bomb-disposal unit.
Ordnance officers examined the bag, which turned out to be a sports holdall, and declared it safe.
Gardai then found a fly-off lever from a military grenade. The lever is held by whoever is throwing the grenade after the pin has been removed. When it is released the grenade is ready to explode.
No further remnants of the grenade were found.
Explode
Last night garda officers reassured local people that garda presence in the area would be increased to deter further violence.
"This is a very settled community," one officer said, "and people are distressed that a grenade should explode in their midst and force them to leave their homes for a number of hours. Our primary aim is to give them some reassurance about their safety while at the same time establishing the circumstances behind the explosion."
Over the past six weeks in Dublin, the Army has been called out 15 times to deal with devices. Nine of the call-outs were related to homemade pipe bombs or grenades, linked to criminal groups.
A military grenade was also used in an attack on an inner city flats complex earlier this month.
Last Monday a crudely constructed pipe bomb was thrown at two men loading a van at their home in Mulhuddart. It did not explode and was later defused by the Army.
- Tom Brady
