Army and family salute new victims of Republican terror

Published on Thursday 12 March 2009 21:00

THE regimental colours flew at half-mast, while soldiers snapped to attention and saluted their fallen comrades.

The army in Northern Ireland yesterday paid solemn farewell to the two soldiers shot dead by dissident Republicans, as their coffins were transferred into the care of their families.

Meanwhile, Kate Carroll, whose husband, Stephen, was shot by the Continuity IRA on Monday evening, the third murder in a resurgence of Republican violence, made an emotional plea that he be the last victim in the Troubles' long and bloody history.

Speaking on the eve of the police officer's funeral, Mrs Carroll said: "I hope that this is the last time that anybody has to suffer what I've suffered as a result of what happened to Steve.

"He thought this war was over, but obviously not, and I just can't believe this has all started up again."

In the living-room of the family home in Banbridge, flanked by her mother-in-law, Mrs Carroll said she wanted some good to come from her despair.

She said: "If Steve's death has made a positive effect on all of this, that's all I care about. It's a hard lesson for everyone to learn, but if it brings something positive out of it, then fine. But I don't want Stephen to have died in vain."

She said that, just as her husband was leaving on the day of his death, it would be ironic if something happened to him now, after he had survived the worst of the Troubles.

She said she refused to think about her husband's killers: "They are non-entities", but they had "taken away my life".

In a private service at the Massereene Barracks in Antrim, outside which the soldiers were shot dead on Saturday night, family and friends joined the regimental farewell.

Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, from London, should have been facing danger in Afghanistan alongside colleagues from the 38th Regiment. Instead, those left behind in Northern Ireland held a 30-minute service for them.

The regimental colours flew at half mast as the Rev Philip McCormack, senior chaplain 19th Light Brigade, and Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Broddle, deputy assistant chaplain general, conducted the service.

The "drumhead service" – the same as those conducted for all soldiers who fall in the field – marked the moment the military family said goodbye. The bodies will be flown home over the coming days for funerals expected to take place next week.

Members of Sapper Azimkar's family attended the service, but the Quinsey family were too overcome to make the journey from England.

More than 150 soldiers were joined by civic dignitaries, including the mayor and the local assembly member, David Ford, the Alliance Party leader and senior police officers.

After the service, the two army chaplains walked ahead of each hearse as they edged their way through ranks of soldiers – some in desert fatigues – who snapped to attention and saluted as their former comrades passed.

Each coffin was draped with the Union flag and topped with regimental cap and gloves.

UNITED FRONT AGAINST TERRORISTS

TWO police forces met yesterday to devise a common strategy to stop dissident Republicans amid fears their next attack could be a car bomb.

Commissioner Fachtna Murphy and other officers from the Republic of Ireland discussed better co-ordination of anti-terrorist activities with Chief Constable Hugh Orde, of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

In the most recent threat, dissidents abandoned a 300lb car bomb in January several miles short of their target, a British Army base. Army explosives experts said that the fertiliser-based bomb was more expertly constructed than the dissidents' previous failures.