An army bomb team was dispatched to Cork this week after a former RTÉ journalist made an astonishing discovery on his property.

Fergal Keane had said earlier in the year that he was leaving RTÉ Radio after over thirty years of reporting for the station in order to pursue other interests, including becoming “a part-time farmer.”

On his property in Baltimore, west Cork, he was renovating an old shed when he discovered “180 sticks” of explosives.

The presenter shared pictures of the discovery on Twitter on Thursday night, October 5th. The tweet said, “So renovating an old shed on the farm in W Cork and found this - it's gelignite - lots of it.”

In a later post, Keane added: “Turns out there were 180 sticks of gelignite disposed of in three very large explosions by the ordinance disposal unit of the DF. Thanks to them.”

A spokesperson for the Defence Forces clarified:

An Garda Síochána received a request from a member of the public, and yesterday a team of Explosive Ordnance Disposal professionals from the Defence Forces was sent to Baltimore to handle the situation.

“To keep the area isolated and enable a comprehensive forensic analysis of the suspected explosives to be conducted, a cordon was constructed.”

“The Defence Forces on the site conducted three controlled demolitions once the find was determined to be a cache of vintage armaments.”