DUBLIN (Reuters) -- Irish police said they arrested two men on Saturday as part of a probe into dissident Republican militants active in Northern Ireland after catching them making explosives from gas cylinders.

A 1998 peace agreement largely ended three decades of violence between predominantly Catholic groups who want a united Ireland and mainly Protestant unionists who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. But militant splinter groups have stepped up attacks recently.
Northern Irish police have beefed up their street presence due to increased paramilitary attacks and they are getting assistance from police in the Republic of Ireland, where the militants have many of their bases and criminal activities which provide their funding.
“The men aged in their 30s and 50s were arrested following a search of an outbuilding at Mount Pleasant, Dundalk, Co Louth,” police said in a statement, referring to an area just south of the border with Northern Ireland.
A police spokesman said the cylinders had been modified to carry explosives. Irish national broadcaster RTE said the two six-foot cylinders found in a trailer had their tops cut off for use either as improvised mortars to launch an attack at Northern Irish police or other targets or to make a large bomb.
“Gardai (police) foiled what is believed to be a major dissident bombing operation,” RTE said on its website.