Cowen: Attacks are nothing but murder

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen last night warned the return of Republican terror attacks in the North amounted to nothing but murder “plain and simple”.

As party politics was temporarily suspended in the Dáil, the leaders of the three main parties closed ranks to condemn the shootings which left two British soldiers and a PSNI officer dead in the space of 48 hours.

“There is no politics to this — it is murder, plain and simple,” Mr Cowen told a sombre gathering of TDs at Leaders’ Questions, as he insisted the peace process belonged to the people and would not be allowed to be destroyed by a small minority of hardliners.