SPECIAL FORCES FROM the Irish Army Ranger Wing carried out a training exercise in a shopping centre in Kildare, leading some people to falsely speculate that a man trying to plant a bomb there had been legitimately arrested.

“A lad just got dragged out of Whitewater Newbridge,” one 15 April Facebook post read, referring to a shopping centre in Co Kildare. 

“Army and all are up here… Apparently he was trying to plant a bomb.”

The video accompanying the post showed men in military gear outside the shopping centre as another person, whose face was covered from view, was escorted out. A crowd, including at least one person in a hi-vis vest, looked on.

The post was viewed more than 21,000 times, according to Facebook’s statistics.

The video actually showed troops from the Army Ranger Wing (ARW) testing their response to an incident inside White Water Shopping Centre in Newbridge.

A spokesman for the Irish Defence Forces said: “The Defence Forces Army Ranger Wing conducted a routine readiness exercise yesterday in the White Water shopping centre.”

The Rangers are based in the Curragh Camp, a short distance from the centre.

It was a “routine response exercise” which piggybacked on an annual fire drill test at the centre.

Security sources said that the exercise was to rehearse their response to a major incident on the island of Ireland. It was a rare daytime and public display by the unit, which is normally protective of its secret status and does not do this.

One of the key tasks for the ARW, and the reason they were formed in the late 1970s, is around responding to marauding terror incidents and hostage rescue. Due to the secrecy of the unit we have not, as yet, been able to confirm the exact scenario was for this exercise.

The Ranger Wing routinely trains in Ireland and abroad to test how they would respond to specific incidents. The Journal has accompanied them on a number of occasions to watch the events.

These have included a maritime incident similar to the MV Matthew drugs seizure mission, bomb disposal scenario and a night time hostage rescue of a downed pilot to simulate scenarios that they may face on foreign and domestic deployments.

It is understood that the primary unit to deal with such incidents would be the Garda Emergency Response Unit (ERU) but the ARW would also go to the scene to be available to offer their assistance.

With reporting from Niall O’Connor.

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