Three alleged Continuity IRA members being questioned by detectives in Lancashire are all English-born, it emerged last night.
The Continuity IRA (CIRA) suspects were arrested in More-cambe on Sunday afternoon.
British police officers, acting on information from Garda in Dublin, raided premises being used by a van rental company on the White Lund industrial estate in the Lancashire town.
Two men, aged 35 and 44, were arrested at the scene while a third 48-year-old man was arrested in a car nearby shortly afterwards.
Gardai said that the operation was part of an investigation into criminal activity in Limerick and also the activities of the CIRA.
Police on both sides of the Irish Sea believe that weapons found at the scene may have been destined for Limerick, which is considered to be a dissident stronghold and is home to a number of leading CIRA members.
Detectives are investigating allegations that at least one of the three men had strong connections to Limerick and may have been involved in sheltering members of the gang responsible for the gangland murder of crime boss Kieran Keane earlier this year.
The men were due to be transferred to London last night whe-re they were to be questioned by members of the anti-terrorist branch of the Metropolitan Police. They are being detained under the UK's anti-terror legislation.
Five men are currently facing charges in connection with the abduction and murder of Mr Keane in January.
They are due to go on trial in October in the Central Criminal Court which is sitting in Limerick.
The CIRA has repeatedly rejected claims that it has links with feuding crime gangs in Limerick city.
Seven days before the raid in Morecambe, gardai arrested eight men in a suspected CIRA training camp in the Comeragh Mountains in Co Waterford. Four firearms, ammunition, balaclavas and a makeshift firing range were found at the scene.
A 10-year-old boy found at the site by gardai was not arrested. Eight men have appeared in court facing charges in connection with the incident.
Seven of the men accused are charged with membership of an unlawful organisation while an eighth has been charged possession of a sawn-off single-barrel shotgun for an unlawful purpose.
