The Irish News
Seamus McKinney
The bomb was found outside the house of a 26-year-old man at Transallagh near the Co Donegal border village of St Johnston around 10pm on Monday. The victim, who is originally from nearby Creggan in Derry, was shot by the Real IRA last month. He was ambushed by up to four masked men as he pulled up at his home on the night of September 25. He was shot in the neck but managed to drive off. The gang abducted his girlfriend who had got out of the car to open the gates to his home. The couple's pet dog was also shot in the attack and later died.
While no group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack, security sources believe it was also the work of the Real IRA. The area around the house remained sealed off throughout Monday night while six families forced to spend the night away from home.
An Irish army technical officer from Athlone barracks arrived at the scene early yesterday and made the device safe. The security alert was eventually lifted after gardai completed a search for a possible secondary device.
Gardai later revealed that the device consisted of a pipe bomb attached to a five-gallon drum of petrol. The pipe bomb exploded but failed to ignite the petrol.
St Johnston parish priest Mgr Dan Carr said parishioners were shocked by the attack. "It is a very quiet, peaceful, country district and people go about their business and they would never have been exposed to this type of behaviour before," he said. "It's obviously very disconcerting for them."
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