Terror threat

Easter Rising: MI5 fears outbreak of violence by terrorist group New IRA

MI5 is to boost its number of agents in Northern Ireland after Home Office fears that a radical Republican group is preparing for an Easter of violence, sources said last night.
The move follows a warning to ministers by Britain’s Security Service to tighten security arrangements in the wake of the signs of renewed threats by dissident group the New IRA. Senior intelligence officers at the Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre, based at MI5 headquarters in Thames House, are concerned that the group is planning a series attacks next month to mark the Easter Rising of the IRA. It emerges just days before the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPS) will reveal if official charges are to made against British paratroopers who served at "Bloody Sunday" in Londonderry in 1972, where, it is claimed, the 14 people who died were murdered.