Politicians unite to condemn bombing
DISSIDENT republicans who planted the car bomb outside Newry Courthouse are intent on derailing the peace process, political leaders said yesterday.
The attack, the first since the DUP and Sinn Fein successfully brokered the Hillsborough political deal to stabilise the power-sharing administration, has been roundly condemned by all the main political parties and the British and Irish governments.
First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness led the condemnations of the bombing when the Stormont Assembly opened its proceedings yesterday.
“The people who carried out this attack are determined to destroy all that has been achieved in recent months,” said Mr Robinson.
“Their sole aim is to return Northern Ireland to its darkest past.
“They will not succeed, for I am equally determined that we will continue to move forward and to protect and defend the very same institutions they seek to destroy.”
Mr McGuinness said he too was determined that Monday night’s attack will not undermine the power-sharing Executive.
“The perpetrators are acting against the democratically-expressed wishes of all of the people of Ireland. They have nothing to offer our society,” he said.
“We will continue on the road we have set out upon to deliver a better future. Attacks such as this are futile and serve only to strengthen our resolve.”
Deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Danny Kennedy, called for an immediate stepping-up of security in border areas such as Newry.
“Clearly, in the current political climate, this attack was designed by republican dissidents to maximise fear and uncertainty and destabilise the authority of our political structures,” said Mr Kennedy.
“And I trust that the political reaction to this event will be a united response of condemnation and a clear indication that parties elected to this House, and considering these issues, will work together on an all inclusive basis to ensure that political stability is maintained.”
A spokesperson for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the bombing was “entirely unrepresentative of the views of the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland”.
“Northern Ireland’s politicians have been working incredibly hard to deliver a successful conclusion to the peace process and they will not allow a tiny minority to turn the clock back.
“The Prime Minister continues to support a peaceful, prosperous and secure Northern Ireland with power in the hands of the people.”
Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin insisted that the attack would not affect the governments’ focus on supporting the Stormont institutions.
“This was a reckless, cowardly, criminal act which put at grave risk the lives of the community in Newry,” he said.
“This attack cannot be justified or excused. Its only purpose was to inflict suffering. Its perpetrators have no mandate or legitimacy.
“The two governments, and the political parties, will not be distracted from this course by a small criminal minority who seek to drag Northern Ireland into the mire of hatred and violence.”
SDLP leader Minister Margaret Ritchie said she was “sickened” by the terrorist attack.
“When so many people are working together in partnership and looking forward to a better future in Newry, a tiny minority should seek to take us backwards with their violence,” she said.
“We have resolutely condemned the violence experienced in Newry for over 30 years and we have equal contempt for this recent wave of violent mayhem in Newry and also in Keady.
“I thank God that no one was killed or injured in this outrage.”
PUP leader Dawn Purvis said it was time for dissident republicans “to go away”.
“Like all acts of violence I condemn utterly the attack in Newry. Dissidents need to go away; they should follow the path of other groups and decommission,” she said.
“They are not going to win; we have come too far and dissidents have nothing to offer the people of Northern Ireland. It is up to politicians to make politics deliver; it is this along with community cooperation with the police which will defeat them.”
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams challenged those representatives of the dissidents to face the public and explain what they were doing.
He said: “Whatever one can say for and against Sinn Fein we were always there at the end of a microphone to make our views clear on whatever was happening.
“Where are all the great freedom fighters that will take pot shots at us? And I don’t just mean verbal pot shots, I and colleagues have received – in the last five weeks – as many as six different warnings that our lives are in imminent danger.
“So let them come forward if they want to have a political debate on the merits of these operations as opposed to this sort of ceasefire soldiering that’s going on, let them argue the case.”
Shadow secretary of state for Northern Ireland Owen Paterson added his condemnation, saying it will reinforce efforts to make the Assembly work.
“Like all other such attacks this will not advance the aims of those who carried it out; rather it will reinforce our determination that violence will not succeed,” said Mr Paterson.
“All parts of the community should co-operate fully with the police, and all Northern Ireland’s political parties need to work together to ensure that the political process keeps moving forward.”
Traditional Unionist Voice party leader Jim Allister said the explosion “aped the type of attack on the judicial process for which Old Bailey bomber Gerry Kelly set the template”.
He added: “Having certainly learned the tactics from IRA, did they also use explosives supposedly decommissioned and benefit from Provo expertise?
“We can now expect perverted calls by Sinn Fein, supported by the Secretary of State and others who should know better, to speed the devolution of policing and justice in response to such violence.”
Victims’ campaigner, Willie Frazer, said he would challenge the local police commander over the resources available to deal with the dissident threat.
“Had anything else happened last night there would not have been an officer within 30 miles to attend,” said Mr Frazer.
“The very police officers themselves are sick of the situation, where they are forced to show normalisation at the risk of their own lives.”
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Weather for Belfast
Monday 28 May 2012
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Temperature: 12 C to 25 C
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