Despite its simplicity, specialist knowledge would be needed to build the bomb that exploded in Coolock on Wednesday, writes Tom Clonan
Wednesday's detonation of a pipe bomb in Coolock represents a sinister turning point in the ongoing turf wars between criminal gangs in Dublin.
It is the third explosive device deployed by criminal elements in the city in the last three months.
On November 25th last, gardaí seized a pipe bomb in a vehicle near Dublin airport. This sophisticated and lethal explosive device was configured as a car bomb and was fitted with powerful magnets with which to fit it to the chassis of the target vehicle, along with a mercury tilt switch - a classic bomb-making signature of republican paramilitaries.
On December 8th, gardaí seized another explosive device at the M50 toll plaza. This device was fully viable and potentially lethal. Its construction was a facsimile match of the bomb-making design favoured by dissident republican paramilitaries. On both occasions the devices failed to reach their targets and neither was detonated.
Wednesday's pipe bomb would appear to have been delivered to its target destination in Coolock and, in an ominous development, was detonated when disturbed by people who came across it.
The pipe bomb detonated this week was a particularly lethal explosive device. Concealed within a large Thermos flask casing, it consisted of a metal pipe, six inches in length and one inch in diameter.
Crimped at both ends, to maximise explosive effect, the pipe contained a large quantity of shotgun propellant, or gunpowder, most likely harvested from shotgun cartridges - which are freely available and on sale in the Republic.
Also contained within the Thermos and packed tightly around the pipe bomb was a large number of nails and shotgun pellets. On detonation, this material would have provided a chain-shot or shrapnel effect.
In other words, it was designed to produce a 360-degree hail of lethal shrapnel similar to a conventional military anti-personnel device.
As improvised explosive devices go, Wednesday's device was relatively unsophisticated. It contained a core bulk explosive element, a simple timed power unit and a detonator.
Despite its simplicity, however, it would require specialist knowledge to construct and would appear to have been - as in the case of the previously seized devices - the work of dissident republican bomb-makers who are contracting their services to the criminal underworld. Fortunately for those who disturbed the device, the outer casing split open on rolling off the bodywork of the victim's car, allowing the nails and shotgun pellets to scatter harmlessly from the bulk charge.
When it subsequently detonated however, the explosive charge was sufficient to fragment the metal pipe, pieces of which penetrated nearby cars - one apparently penetrating the radiator of an adjacent vehicle. By some miracle, nobody was injured.
Originally placed at torso height on the target vehicle, had the device detonated intact as intended, it would have eviscerated anyone within several metres. Decapitation, gross blunt trauma, third-degree burns, and multiple fatal lacerations are all injuries commonly associated with the shrapnel effect of such devices.
Significantly, the template for such devices was developed by republican paramilitaries in Ireland during the Troubles as a weapon of choice for inflicting indiscriminate death and injury among civilian and military targets - thereby maximising their terror effect. This is one of the reasons why such devices are so popular with insurgents in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.
Wednesday's device was placed in the open, in the heart of a densely populated northside suburb. Detonated at around 5pm, it is remarkable that there were no deaths or injuries among the hundreds of innocent commuters, passers-by or children that one would normally expect to find in a crowded Dublin suburb on a fine evening.
There is a legitimate fear in security circles that it is only a matter of time before innocent civilians fall victim to this latest threat to the internal security of the State.
• Tom Clonan is security analyst for The Irish Times