Hundreds of illegal firearms destroyed by An Garda Síochána yesterday will be shipped to Ohio in the US to form part of an international Peace Fountain.
The melted-down metal will help create blocks for the fountain, which is the initiative of the Ohio police department.
It aims to create the symbol of peace out of decommissioned arms from countries all over the world, particularly areas of conflict, and the completion date is planned for September 11th, 2006, in Ohio.
The Garda and other police forces have been asked to take part in the global project, and gardaí were the first to step forward.
Their Ohio counterparts came up with the idea after some contact with the PSNI in Northern Ireland where there is a small fountain with a similar concept in Coleraine, Co Derry.
Yesterday the Assistant Commissioner, Mr Tony Hickey, was joined by senior police officers from Ohio to oversee the destruction of the weapons at an industrial unit in Dublin.
Up to 800 firearms seized during the course of criminal and subversive investigations were destroyed.
They included heavy sub-machine guns, handguns, Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles, a number of rocket-propelled grenade launchers and sawn-off shotguns.
Det Insp Brendan McArdle of the Garda Press Office said: "This way something good comes out of something evil.
"It is quite unusual," he added. "They are hoping to receive a great deal of metal and are planning to complete it for September 11th, 2006."
The fountain would be built in Ohio, but the exact location had yet to be decided, he said.
Ohio police are making contact with other forces. Earlier this week they were in Manchester meeting police officers.
Insp McArdle said the Garda Síochána had been destroying arms over the past four years, but this was usually not publicised for security reasons. The arms were destroyed once they were not required for court.
"These are the last major batch of weapons to be destroyed, and it is great that something good can come out of it," he said.
A huge number of weapons had been destroyed, but until now the metal had just been shredded, he said.