Lisa Smith: Isis recruit and former member of Irish military arrested after arriving in Dublin

Thirty-eight-year-old taken to police station as relatives care for toddler daughter

Irish broadcaster RTE said Ms Smith was accompanied by three consular officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, members of the Army Ranger Wing, and a Turkish security officer (ITV News)

An Isis bride who once served in the Irish military has been arrested after arriving back in Dublin with her two-year-old daughter.

Lisa Smith, 38, is a former member of Ireland’s Defence Forces who went to Syria in 2015 after converting to Islam and becoming radicalised.

Ms Smith, who had been living in a refugee camp in the war-torn country with her child, was deported from Turkey and put on the first flight to Ireland on Sunday.

She was arrested by Irish police after touching down at Dublin airport shortly before 10.30am.

Gardai said in a statement: “An Garda Siochana has arrested an Irish citizen (38-year-old female) on suspicion of terrorist offences following her deportation from Turkey.

“She is currently being detained at a south Dublin Garda station under the provisions of Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act, 1939 as amended.

“A child, also an Irish citizen, was in the company of the female and is now being cared for by relatives.”

Irish broadcaster RTE said Ms Smith was accompanied by three consular officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs, members of the Army Ranger Wing, and a Turkish security officer.

She was not in custody for the four-and-a-half-hour flight but Irish police were waiting at Dublin airport for the plane’s arrival.

Images of her arrival showed her covered in a pink blanket as she was taken from the plane in heavy rain.

Ms Smith is originally from Dundalk, Co Louth, close to the Irish border with Northern Ireland.

She said the father of her child, born in Syria, was a suspected member of Isis who died last year.

Ms Smith held a relatively lowly role in the Defence Forces but worked on the official Irish government jet.

She accompanied former president Mary Robinson and the then taoiseach Bertie Ahern on journeys.

Significant numbers of Europeans left for Syria to fight for and against Isis during a bloody war which destroyed the Middle Eastern country and produced millions of refugees.

Ms Smith has denied being involved in violence.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said she should have the right of return to Ireland and that removing her citizenship would not be right or compassionate.

In Britain, captured British Isis fighters will be brought back to the UK to be put on trial if it is the best place for them to face justice, the national security adviser has said.

Shamima Begum, the Bethnal Green schoolgirl who fled to Syria to join Isis in 2015, was stripped of her British citizenship by the then home secretary Sajid Javid, prompting her to take legal action against the UK.

Ms Begum claims she married Dutch convert Yago Riedijk 10 days after arriving in Isis territory.

She told The Times that she left Raqqa in January 2017 with her husband but her children, a one-year-old girl and a three-month-old boy, had both since died.

Her third child died shortly after he was born.

Additional reporting by Press Association