Alarming signs of ambivalence about the car bomb in NW

The attendance was not particularly large, which is perhaps disappointing, but the gesture was an important and welcome one.

It is good that Sinn Fein MPs attended the event.

But the party has shown alarming ambivalence about the car bomb last Saturday.

Its opposition to a motion condemning the incident, tabled at Derry City and Strabane council on Thursday, meant that the formal denunciation only passed by a single vote.

It is not entirely clear why they opposed the motion, but the exact wording seems to have been objectionable to them, condemning violence past and present.

But it is a simple fact that this put them alongside pro dissident representatives.

Recently, Martina Anderson opposed the extradition of one of the Omagh bomb mass murderers to eastern Europe, citing concern about his rights.

This sort of political rhetoric is deeply troubling, in a week in which the Stormont stalemate was again apparent in bad health statistics relating to A&E waiting times.

There can be no room for any ambivalence at all at the heart of our future governments over either loyalist or republican terrorism.