Joe Biden is scheduled to visit Ireland this week, including a stop in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the US-brokered Good Friday Agreement.
The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 ended decades of fighting between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland in a conflict known as the Troubles.
In 1921, six counties of Northern Ireland remained part of the UK, while the rest of Ireland became an independent state, creating a divide between nationalists who wanted Northern Ireland to be part of the Republic of Ireland and unionists who wanted to remain with the UK. .
In the late 1960s, armed groups from both sides of the conflict such as the Republican Army (IRA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) carried out violence, prompting British troops to be sent to Northern Ireland.
The nearly 30-year period was marked by bombings and shootings that killed more than 3,500 people and injured thousands.
And now, ahead of Biden’s visit, police in Northern Ireland have announced that they have foiled a suspected terror plot planned by the “New IRA” to coincide with the visit.
The New York Post reported:
Police in Northern Ireland foiled an IRA terror bomb plot intended to disrupt President Biden’s upcoming visit to Belfast on Tuesday, it was revealed on Sunday.
Members of a paramilitary group called the New IRA were looking to buy bomb parts in Derry and were plotting to build an explosive device to disrupt Biden’s diplomatic stop, the Belfast Telegraph reported.
“They were looking for parts to make a bomb,” a source told the newspaper.
“It is believed that the New IRA is planning some sort of attack to coincide with Biden’s visit, similar to the mortar attack on police in Strabane last November.”
Last November, the group claimed responsibility for detonating a roadside bomb targeting a police vehicle in County Tyrone. Two policemen escaped injury when a bomb exploded next to their car.
According to reports, New IRA leader Thomas Mellon wanted a “brilliant” way to undermine Biden’s visit.
Allison Morris of the Belfast Telegraph shared details of the plot.
