The car bomb which partly exploded in a Drogheda street yesterday afternoon is believed to have been planted by criminal associates of Patrick Farrell, the drug trafficker shot dead in the town on Wednesday.
The car was stolen in Newry, fitted with false number plates, driven across the Border and parked in Drogheda yesterday morning. It was left outside the offices of the taxi firm run by Ms Peggy Farrell, mother of 29-yearold Lorraine Farrell, whose body was found alongside Patrick Farrell's body in a house in Drogheda on Wednesday. Lorraine Farrell had apparently killed her lover with a shotgun blast, before turning the weapon on herself.
The bomb was described by gardai as a crude device, but one which could have killed and maimed many had it gone off as planned. The partial explosion at 12.40 p.m. on Stockwell Street blew the back of the car open and damaged the one behind.
The pipe bomb was on the rear seat of the car, while the boot carried containers filled with petrol.
In a telephone call to the Samaritans in Newry a caller said the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) claimed responsibility. The caller, who used a recognised code-word, said another bomb had been planted on the rail track between Newry and Dundalk.
The line was closed between 2 p.m. and 6.30 p.m., but nothing was found.
???i, is not considered credible.
Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that Lorraine Farrell paid £100 for a plot at a local cemetery days before her death, and wrote a note to one of her sisters concerning funeral arrangements. Her family thought she was simply making long-term plans, and had no idea she was preparing to take her own life and that of Patrick Farrell, with whom she had had a relationship over the last three years.
Sources yesterday said it appeared Farrell wanted to end their relationship, and this had upset Lorraine. She told friends: "I know I let things get in on me". Post-mortems on Patrick Farrell and Lorraine Farrell, who were not related, were carried out by a local pathologist, Dr Michael Stewart. Neither the State Pathologist nor a deputy was available.
Yesterday a solicitor acting for Patrick Farrell's family said the fact no State pathologist was available had added to the distress of his family. The solicitor's statement also said he was happily married, and that the allegations concerning drugs were "totally denied" and were "completely unfounded".