Gardai are examining a weapons cache recovered near the Border in Co Monaghan to determine whether it belonged to the Provisional IRA or to republican dissidents.
A Russian-made general-purpose machinegun (GPMG), five AK47 assault rifles, handguns and bomb parts were found in two plastic barrels buried in a ditch on farmland at Keenogue outside Inniskeen, Co Monaghan, at lunchtime yesterday.
Local sources said last night it was believed the weapons had belonged to the Provisional IRA but had fallen into the hands of republican dissidents. It is known that the Provisionals kept weapons caches in plastic barrels in the Border area.
The discovery was made by gardai involved in operations against dissident republicans in the Border area.
The officers, based in Carrickmacross and Monaghan Garda stations, have detained seven members of one Co Monaghan family for the past three days. Yesterday gardai released the mother after holding her for two days. She had been held in Carrickmacross Garda station with two of her sons.
The father and three other sons are being held in Monaghan Garda station. A senior officer attached to the station applied to Dundalk District Court to extend the two-day period of detention for the father and five sons for a further 24 hours. The application was granted. The six men must be charged or released from custody this morning.
The arms cache in Co Monaghan is the second find by gardai in the past week. The Garda Press Office said yesterday that a .22 rifle and handgun were recovered during a search of property earlier this week in the Donaghmede area of Dublin.
A number of men associated with the fringe political party, Republican Sinn Fein, were arrested for questioning earlier this week, but have been released without charge.
It was not clear yesterday if the arrests in Monaghan and Dublin were linked to the investigation into the Omagh bombing.
RSF, in a statement yesterday, said that the arrests were part of a campaign of harassment of republicans. The party claimed that the arrests in Monaghan arose out of "bad relations with local members of the Provisionals". It added: "Two Republican Sinn Fein members arrested in Dublin on Monday last have now been released without charge. Both swoops were part of an attempt to intimidate and silence political activity by Republican Sinn Fein."
The party called for the release of the Co Monaghan family and for human rights and civil liberties bodies to examine the cases.
Meanwhile, the RUC is still detaining six men arrested in the Cullaville area of south Armagh on Monday. It is understood that the men are being questioned about the Omagh bombing. The RUC can detain people for questioning for up to seven days without charge.