Dublin is ringed with steel in the search for IRA arsenal raiders
On This Day/December 30 1939
By Eamon Phoenix
Irish News
30/12/08
Dublin was ringed with steel last night as the military authorities drew tight around the Irish capital an armed cordon in search of the million rounds of rifle, revolver and machine-gun ammunition daringly captured by IRA men from the army’s Magazine Fort in Phoenix Park on Saturday.
It was the most rigorous and widespread search known in the country since the civil war years and it extended beyond Dublin to the counties of Kildare, Wicklow, Carlow and Kilkenny.
Throughout the night agents of the government were searching houses in the city as the cordon kept unceasing watch on the roads. A secret military commission sat in Dublin yesterday to inquire into the raid on the magazine. The nine military guards are under detention pending their report.
Armed men, stated to have numbered 50, gained access to the magazine by presenting one of their number at the entrance gate in the uniform of an Irish military officer. The guard was overpowered and the ammunition carried off in waiting lorries.
Five men have been charged and remanded in connection with the raid – three of them yesterday. It was at dawn yesterday that the military cordon was thrown round the city.
'So venceremos, beidh bua againn eigin lá eigin. Sealadaigh abú.'
--Bobby Sands