GARDAI are waiting to question a Belfast man who was admitted to Sligo General Hospital at the weekend with arm and face injuries believed to have been caused by an explosive device.
The man, aged 41, appeared in south Donegal on Saturday evening some hours after the RUC discovered a partially exploded bomb at King Street, in the lower Falls Road area of Belfast.
According to security sources in the North, it was suspected that the device was being transported to a target in Belfast city centre when the detonator exploded.
It is suspected the device was made by members of the break-away republican group which calls itself the Continuity Army Council (CAC) IRA. This group issued a statement last week saying it would attack British military targets in Northern Ireland.
The same group was responsible for bombing the Killyhevlin Hotel, at Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh last July. It was also responsible for failed bomb attacks in the past two years in south Armagh and in Derry city.
It is understood that the Belfast man, who is under guard by Special Branch officers in Sligo, was brought to a doctor in Donegal on Saturday evening and then taken to hospital where he is being treated for the injuries to his face and hands.
The man is a well-known republican from west Belfast and has served jail sentences in the North and the Republic. He has previously been associated with the Provisional republican movement and the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).
He was arrested in north Belfast with a sub-machinegun in 1992 during one of the INLA's feuds.
It is also understood that before he was taken to hospital the injured man was in the company of a member of Republican Sinn Fein (RSF), the small, militant political party which broke away from Sinn Fein in 1986.
RSF has denied that it is connected with the Continuity IRA but gardai say the two groups are closely connected. Several people associated with the political party have been arrested in the past 18 months and are awaiting trial on arms and explosives charges.
Both RSF and the Continuity IRA group expressed strong opposition to the IRA's 18-month ceasefire and have been vocal again recently as the prospect of another IRA ceasefire appears to be arising again.
Security sources in Northern Ireland and the Republic recently indicated their suspicions that in the event of an impending IRA ceasefire they could expect acts of violence from groups such as the Continuity Army Council IRA and the INLA. The INLA was responsible for last Friday's murder of an off-duty RUC man in a Belfast public house.
Senior gardai yesterday confirmed that a man was in hospital in Sligo but would make little further comment. Chief Supt Denis Fizpatrick, of Donegal, said: "We are aware that there is a person in hospital and we are investigating the source of his injuries."
The INLA and RSF attacks have occurred after almost a month without any IRA violence in the North. It is believed the IRA is observing a de facto ceasefire to facilitate the electoral performance of Sinn Fein in the Republic's general election and local government elections in Northern Ireland.