Bomb defused in Dublin tourist office

By Andrew Bushe

DUBLIN – Gardai and army bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled explosion on a suspect parcel delivered to the Sligo Tourist Office Wednesday morning.

According to the Irish Times, staff at the office contacted gardai soon after the package arrived Wednesday morning and an army bomb squad exploded the device after premises evacuating the premises.

The Sligo incident follows another suspected bomb attack against an Irish tourist office in Dublin a day earlier. Irish tourist offices throughout the world were put on the alert after a crude explosive package was delivered to the offices of Dublin Tourism in Suffolk Street in the city center on Tuesday.

Dublin Gardai believe an unknown loyalist group or a disturbed person with bomb-making knowledge may have been responsible for that device, The Irish Times reported. No one has claimed responsibility for either package.

The Dublin device, a brown envelope, had four 1 pence British stamps on it but the postmark was illegible. Inside was a long tube containing an explosive material contacted to a battery and trip switch designed to go off as the package was opened.

An Irish army bomb disposal expert who defused the bomb described it as “crude and improvised.”