By John Burke Public Affairs Correspondent
www.thepost.ie
25 July 2010
Ireland has some of the most active terrorist groups in Europe, according to information provided by the Garda Síochána to Europol, the European police network.
There were more terrorist-related arrests in Ireland last year than in any other EU state, with a total of 31 suspected terrorists arrested here in 2009. All of those arrested were listed by the Garda Síochána as suspected members of ‘separatist’ paramilitary groups.
It is understood that all of those arrested were suspected members of either the Continuity IRA or Real IRA, which have stepped up their campaigns in the past two years.
There has not been any recorded Islamist terror activity in Ireland that led to arrests or charges.
The data is contained in a report published by Europol, the EU Terrorism and Situation Trend Report (TE-SAT) 2010.The report, based on figures provided by all of the major police forces in Europe, places Ireland at the top of the league for certain terror-related activities.
The actual number of arrests in Ireland was significantly less than the numbers arrested in France and Spain, which had 315 and 169 arrests of suspected separatist and Islamic terrorists, respectively.
However, when the data is adjusted for population, separatist terror groups in Ireland are considerably more active than their continental equivalents. Read more…
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