Irish police crack suspected dissident republican spy ring

Irish police have cracked what is believed to be a dissident republican spy ring close to the operational headquarters of the Garda Siochana in Dublin. Two men were arrested after Gardai raided a bedroom of a Dublin hotel in the city's Harcourt Street area. Hi-tech surveillance equipment was found in the room and in a follow-up operation the pair aged 32 and 41 were arrested on Grafton Street, Dublin's most famous shopping thoroughfare. It is believed the men were tailed from the hotel where the raid took place. It is thought the hotel room was being used to electronically eavesdrop on anti-terrorist detectives at the premises overlooking the Harcourt Street Garda station where operations against republican dissident terror groups takes place. The devices found inside room also included cameras trained on the Garda HQ. The pair are being held under Section 30 of the Irish Republic's Offences Against the State Act for membership of an unlawful organisation and providing assistance to an unlawful organisation. The men who are from Cabra in north Dublin and Tallaght in the west of the city can be held for up to three days before they are either charged or released.