India, July 25 -- Irish police intercepted what they described as an "extremely significant" car bomb near the border with Northern Ireland this week, arresting two people in an operation that officers say is tied to an ongoing investigation into dissident republican activity nearly three decades after the Good Friday Agreement formally ended the region's sectarian conflict.

A woman in her 20s was stopped and arrested Wednesday near Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, on suspicion of offences against the state and remained in Garda custody as of Friday. A man in his 40s was detained separately and continues to be held under the same legislation, according to police, who called in a military bomb disposal team to examine and make safe the de...