Car bomb intercepted by Irish police near the Northern Ireland border

LONDON (AP) — An Irish law student was charged Friday with possessing explosives after being arrested with what police called an “extremely significant” car bomb they intercepted near the Northern Ireland border during an investigation of dissident republicans.

Isobella Perrie Sullivan, 25, was stopped while driving Wednesday on a highway near Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, police said. They discovered plastic explosives and a detonator in a bag in the back of the car.

“What we found was an extremely significant seizure,” Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly said. “This was an explosive device.”

An Irish military bomb disposal team was called to examine the car, though no details were provided on how they disposed of the ordnance.

Defense lawyer Gavin Booth said Sullivan had been manipulated and was unaware of the contents of a bag she was asked to take to the north. She was freed on 15,000 euro ($17,054) bail after her appearance in Trim District Court.

While it’s unclear where the car was headed, there have been two car bomb incidents this year in Northern Ireland that police have blamed on dissident republicans, including one that exploded outside a police station on the outskirts of Belfast in April. No one was injured and an earlier attempted bombing at a police station was thwarted by officers who detonated the bomb in a controlled explosion.

The incidents are reminders of the decades of violence known as “The Troubles.” The conflict involving Irish Republican and British Loyalist militants and U.K. security forces left almost 3,600 people dead before the 1998 Good Friday peace accord.

“We certainly know that there are a small minority of dissident republicans who did not agree with the Good Friday Agreement,” Kelly said. “There’s a small minority of these individuals, I would describe them as radicalized republicans, and this is a threat that we’re going to continue to face for some time.”

Republicans want to reunify Ireland by ending British rule of Northern Ireland.

Police requested as a condition of release that Sullivan not contact anyone with Saoradh, the Irish republican revolutionary party, or the New Irish Republican Army.