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A HOMEMADE ROCKET found in Wexford last year would have been indiscriminately aimed with a pound of explosives on board.
The rocket was seized as part of an operation tackling dissident republicans in Courtown, County Wexford and shown to the media yesterday.
It was one of four weapons which were homemade, using specs from the internet. All four were based on the Qassam rocket, popular with Hamas militants in Palestine.
Sergeant Tom Carey, a Garda ballistics expert, told reporters yesterday that while the rocket appeared crude, it could do damage.
“It can be ignited using a burning fuse or use an electric current to light a squib.
Once the motor ignites, it propels itself a distance to the apex of its trajectory and then falls. It’s primitive ballistics. You want maximum trajectory, you point it at around 66 degrees. If you want something closer, you aim higher.
“It’s primitive stuff, but it works.”
Carey says that this rocket likely has a kilo of semtex explosives in its warhead, meaning that the damage could be widespread.
It depends on what you hit. In a street, or a market, a kilo of semtex would be around a 50-foot blast radius. It would do serious damage.
“There’s no aiming. It’s like the V1 rocket from World War II – point, press and hope.”
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Rockets – Rifles – explosives etc etc And all for criminal activities because they ain’t fighting the British with them. Wasters with no Cause.
Do you or will i go down to wexford and tell them boys the troubles are finished a few years back.
Shinnerbots yesterday complaining that the Gardaí’s presentation of terrorist equipment was politically motivated to damage Sinn Féin.
Jesus wept.
A court town the miami of Ireland in the sunny south east. Land of the strawberry with its golden coast line.. Many a good memory in a mobile home as a child.
Another troll to the ranks,get a life
Ha Ha!
Send them back.
Hack of yer dog
Dairmuid can you please explain why on yesterdays thread you attempted to make a connection to either Sinn fein or PIRA directly in 19 out of your 22 comments, yet today you attempt to redicule those who point out how that report from Gardi can be used as a politically motivated attack on Sinn Fein by twisted minds like your own.
I never said the CIRA, RIRA or “Óglaigh na hÉireann” were affiliated with SF/PIRA.
What’t this
So why in in thread about dissent weaponary was the need to mention SF or Pira in 19 out of 22 comments. That was the question???
‘Diarmuid’ your other accounts was making the most exact same point yesterday.
Sorry to feed into your persecution complex shinnerbots.
Dairmuid so no logical answer to my questions, just the standard attack those asking, rather than address the question. And you decry others with “Jesue wept”..
You make it so easy to debunk your bigoted outlook!!!
Óglaigh na hÉireann being the name for our official defence forces lest we forget
Challenging your fellow shinnerbots trying to rewrite history and saying it was politically motivated.
Do read the comments Bowe.
A primitive rocket made by primitive fools..
Apparently Wyle E Coyote lives in Wexford!
Very good Alan acme products now available in argos
Its the keg one I find disturbing, no one runs away from a keg.
Could this have not been reported yesterday along with the guns and semtex?
This way they get 2 articles spread out a small bit
Can’t wait for tomorrow’s article about the bullets they found then.
Strange timing, all the arms look like they were on the antique road show at some stage, gaelers looking for panic in the streets of Dublin!
No aiming device – I assume a current or former Wexford hurler is the prime suspect so :-)
Yeah, “there may be a kilo of explosives in it”
firstly has it not been examined over the year??? They still don’t know how much explosives is in it. Also it still has the explosives in it?
Secondly it’s not that impressive
Given that you have Semtex , anybody with time and a few hundred euros could build this.
The way he said ‘may’ does indeed make it sound utterly made up. So either there’s literally nothing in it, or there’s ‘roughly’ a 1kg
The word used is likely and it’s not a quote. Also it may never have had explosives in it and he is saying it most likely would have had a kilo of Semtex put into it. Words can be interpreted many ways, but when you are blinded by your own views …
The one thing I can’t get around my head is who would carry around a big bright red box with SEMTEX written on it ? It’s like something out of a comic years ago when the baddies had a big tube with DYNAMITE written on it!
Semtex-H is wrapped in waxed paper and is transported in brick form (250g-3000g) and packed in boxes weighing 25kg. That of course wouldn’t look as dramatic as a bright red ammo box with Semtex-H plastered on the side of it.
Which raises the question, if the gardai fake a semtex box, what else are they faking (and why)
I’d assume if you’re handling a big box of Semtex, you would want to know it contained Semtex.
All obtained from SF/PIRA’s ally, Gaddafi.
No aiming system – a bit like the country, when you think about it!
It looks more like a hobby rocket than a weapons one but considering who they took it off I guess you never know.
It looks more like a project I did in engineering in school
Sorry to see all the engineering skill gone to waste and the science exhibition would have made a very good entry
These idiots egos have no bounds.
Of course it could have caused damage. Its a rocket. That’s kid of the point.
Violent republicans, now that is a surprise. Other violent republicans criticising violent republicans for being violent – our violence is better than your violence.
Tap which “violent” republicans have criticised other “violent” republicans. ??
Tap/Diarmuid/mk67/powerabbey yet when the uda/uvf/oo parade up and down your street you consider it a cultural experience.
Model rockets are legal in Ireland. There are model rocket clubs. Some Scout groups make them. This is a model rocket, not a weapon no matter what the Gardai say. Anyone who has children in Scouts or many after school groups which focus on science knows this. In fact, here is the Irish and EU law in regards to model rockets:
1. IRISH AVIATION AUTHORITY (ROCKETS AND SMALL AIRCRAFT) ORDER, 2000, S.I. No. 25/2000:
This statute restricts the launching of rockets but explicitly says it does NOT apply ” (b) to a model rocket using not more than 100 grams (0.1 kilogram) of propellant or using a slow burning propellant and made of paper, wood or frangible plastic containing no substantial parts and weighing no more than half a kilogram (0.5 kilogram) operated in a manner that does not create a hazard to persons, property or other aircraft;…”
2. European Communities (Placing on the Market and Supervision of Explosives for Civil Uses) Regulations, 1995:
“D. Propellants and rocket propellants.
( a ) These materials must not detonate when used for their intended purpose.
( b ) Propellants where necessary (e.g. those based on nitrocellulose) must be stabilised against decomposition.
( c ) Solid rocket propellants, when in compressed or cast form, must not contain any unintentional fissures or gas bubbles which dangerously affect their functioning.
Unless that rocket had explosives in it when they found it it is not a weapon. The solid fuel used in model rockets also blows out the parachute in the cone meaning it would ignite the explosives within seconds of lift off pretty much killing the people who launched it and no one else. The range on a rocket that size would not go farther than your neighbours back garden or half a GAA pitch. More If you put anything in the cone of a rocket like that it will cause it to fall right over. The idea of loading it with explosives is laughable on so many levels. It’s the kind of thing children say when you are launching model rockets when they have no concept of weight ratios or the basics of aerodynamics.
But hey, these are Gardai in rural Ireland, not rocket scientists or engineers so to them I’m sure this thing looks like something pretty high tech and scared the bejesus out of them. It’s just anyone with a basic understanding of rockets, physics, or how flight itself works would laugh in their face if they said this to them. The fact they released a press statement about it makes me worry about what appears to be the complete lack of science education in this country.
I agree that this is clearly a standard model rocket design, however the fact that it was allegedly found in the context of a large weapons haul suggests that it probably was not intended to be used for recreational purposes.
30 years old those weapons. I was not even born when they were made.
But your Mom was James. I remember I first met her about 31 years ago and we had a wonderful night toget…. wait a second.. how old did you say you are?
“…would have to be indiscriminately aimed with a pound of explosives on board…”: “Now Rebel, take up your Rocket, ensure you have exactly one pound of explosives loaded and prepare, prepare to aim indiscriminately! (You can fire it when you’re ready)”. Class english, Journal! Perhaps ‘unguided rocket’ would suffuce?
Just like the wasters in Dail Eireann, no aiming system and it’s doing serious damage.
That’s a rocket you can buy at any hobby shop in the country, it’s not a weapon. Could someone put explosives in it? Sure, but they could also put explosives in a slingshot. Are we going to start taking slingshots off children and saying they could be used to launch explosives? Using that tortured logic you could say all men are rapists, as they all are carrying the tools they need to do the job with them at all times, so therefore they must be rapists.
Unless that rocket had explosives in it when they found it all they found was some persons model rocket. It makes the Gardai look pretty thick rolling that out a childs model as some sort of weapon.
It’s not a weapon ? and it was seized from dissidents ??
“Sure, but they could also put explosives in a slingshot” are you that stupid ?
“Unless that rocket had explosives in it when they found it all they found was some persons model rocket”
If i’m on a jury and a person is caught with ak47s etc and also this rocket, I wouldn’t have any problem believing it to be a weapon, I think your comment actually makes you look pretty thick, not the gardai
See my post above. It is apparent you are as thick as the Gardai here. What you have just said to everyone is if you were on a jury you would convict a person of a crime which is impossible based on science and physics because you, like the Gardai, are thicker than a small plank.
“Carey says that this rocket likely has a kilo of Semtex explosives in its warhead”
Is he off his game handling and displaying a weapon like this, sure Army disposal would have removed live explosives, I know any fuse mechanism would have been disabled but Semtex is highly volatile.
Charles, Semtex is not highly volatile, in fact it is this property that makes it’s use widespread. You can throw that of the roof of your house and it won’t go off. It’s only when you put the required detonator in it that you have to be careful.
Max trajectory is always 45 degrees
No it’s not! It’s not rocket science!
Perhaps it’s not terrorist perhaps it was built for a rocket festival, which could explain why we are having so much rain! Just a thought. A nicer one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Festival
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