Ulster despairs: Province gripped by fear of return to the Troubles

Published on Tuesday 10 March 2009 20:52

DESPAIR was mixed with defiance last night, amid fears Northern Ireland's fragile peace could spiral back into lawless sectarianism after the first murder of a policeman in a decade.

Loyalist paramilitaries were urged to stay calm and avoid any return to the tit-for-tat violence of the Troubles, following the murder of two soldiers and a police officer in three days by two dissident republican terrorist groups.

Last night, police were questioning two men, one aged 37 and the other 17, in connection with the murder of Constable Stephen Carroll, 48, who was shot in the head while responding to a 999 call on Monday evening.

That killing came as tributes continued to pour in after the murder of two soldiers. Sappers Mark Quinsey, 23, and Patrick Azimkar, 21, were gunned down on Saturday as they collected a pizza from delivery men at the gates of the Massereene base in County Antrim.

The Continuity IRA, a republican splinter group opposed to the peace process, claimed responsibility for the policeman's murder and, in a code-worded statement, declared: "As long as there is British involvement in Ireland, these attacks will continue."

In a historic statement yesterday, Martin McGuinness, who was a senior IRA commander in the 1970s and is now Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, described the killers as "traitors to the island of Ireland". He said: "They have betrayed the political desires, hopes and aspirations of all the people who live on this island."

Peter Robinson, the first minister, said: "This is a battle of wills between a political class and evil, evil people – and the political class will win."

He was supported by Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, who insisted that the latest wave of violence would not disrupt the peace process.

"These are murderers who are trying to distort and disrupt and destroy a political process that is working for the people of Northern Ireland," he said.

"They will never be allowed to undermine the historic political process."

The party representing one of the main loyalist terror groups, the Ulster Volunteer Force, appealed to its community to stay calm. Dawn Purvis, the leader of the UVF-linked Progressive Unionist Party, said: "The message remains the same – the perpetrators will not be allowed to damage our peace process."

He added: "I appeal for calm and for people to assist the police by providing them with the information that can take these people off the streets and before the courts."

However, Kevin Toolis, a film-maker and author of a book about the IRA, Rebel Hearts, spoke for many when he said: "Ireland's Troubles are back."

There were fears that soldiers could yet return to the streets of the province, with the three murders leading to calls to increase security and redeploy the SAS.

Terry Spence, the chairman of the Police Federation, said seven Northern Ireland police officers had been injured as a result of gun and bomb attacks in the past 18 months.

"If every attack mounted by the dissident republicans had been successful in the way they intended, we could have had 45 officers murdered in that period," he said.

Jim Allister, a Northern Ireland member of the European Parliament, said: "Our present reduced and denuded police cannot cope alone with active republican terrorism. Thus, now is the time to bring in the SAS before it gets out of hand."

However, Sir Hugh Orde, the chief constable of Northern Ireland, ruled out asking the army for help in tackling what he described as a "small, disenfranchised and rather ridiculous" group.

It was a position supported by Shaun Woodward, the Northern Ireland Secretary, who said he did not want to see the return of troops to the province's streets. He said: "We have to protect people in Northern Ireland in every way we can, but what is equally important is getting the balance right."

The shooting of the policeman in Craigavon left local residents numbed and horrified.

One father, close to tears, said his children were scared to walk to school past the scene of the killing. Delores Kelly, the local SDLP Assembly member, said: "People are very bewildered about this. The vast majority just don't want it. It is in no way representative of the Irish people."

CONTINUITY IRA

THE CIRA emerged from a split in the Provisional IRA (PIRA) in 1986. The splinter group protested against Sinn Fein's decision to end its boycott of the Irish parliament.

CIRA supporters regard the group as the national army of a 32-county Irish Republic.

It is opposed to any political agreement not based on a united Ireland.

A regular CIRA tactic is to create a civil disturbance that lures police into an area so they can be attacked.

In the past year, the CIRA targeted police using an explosive trip-wire, but the officers escaped injury.

The group, estimated by some to have 50 to 80 members mainly based in the Irish Republic, is also involved in drug dealing, robbery, kidnapping, extortion and fuel smuggling.

In a recent report, the CIRA was labelled "active, dangerous and committed and… capable of a greater level of violent and other crime".

REAL IRA

THE group was formed in 1997 when the Provisional IRA's (PIRA) quartermaster and a dozen others left in protest, after Sinn Fein agreed to talks with London and Dublin.

It has violently protested against the Good Friday Agreement and, on 15 August 1998, planted the Omagh bomb.

The organisation is said to have several hundred members.

Its weapons cache, though limited compared to the PIRA, was stolen from their arsenals prior to its formation and has been supplemented through the black market in countries like Lithuania.

The group is funded by criminal activity and has been particularly active in the past year.

The attack on Saturday would have received most support from working-class republicans who supported Sinn Fein's negotiations with Britain – believing they would lead to a united Ireland – but have since grown disillusioned.

MORE ON NORTHERN IRELAND VIOLENCE

• 'They won't get me' – officer's final farewell to his wife

• Analysis: Splinter groups within splinter groups flourish in political vacuum as parties fail to end deadlock