Death threats 'won't stop community policing bodies'

New community policing bodies in Northern Ireland will forge ahead with their work despite members receiving death threats from dissident republicans, it was claimed today.

Professor Desmond Rea, the chairman of the cross-community Policing Board, attacked those responsible for issuing a threat against the life of Fermanagh District Policing Partnership member Cathal O’Dolan.

The Catholic civil servant and part-time farmer from Belcoo stepped down after a threat from the Real IRA.

A statement from Mr O’Dolan, which was read by chairman Tom Elliot before a meeting of the body last night, said he had no alternative but to resign.

Mr Elliot, an Ulster Unionist councillor, said: “It’s absolutely deplorable that Cathal O’Dolan has had to resign in this way and it’s deplorable that people still want to live in the past and rule by fear and intimidation and threats.

“We have to ask what have these type of people to offer our society. Do they want to rule this province like Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden?”

Mr Elliot said the threat purporting to be from the Real IRA was telephoned to a local newspaper office earlier this week.

“Mr O’Dolan has a lot to offer society and he was a great contributor to the local DPP,” Mr Elliot said.

“He was there from its formation and he played a key role in it and it’s unfortunate that this has happened, but he still has a lot to offer society.”

District Policing Partnerships were established in council areas across Northern Ireland in a bid to foster better relations between police and the local communities.

Professor Desmond Rea expressed sympathy to Mr O’Dolan and his family.

“Mr O’Dolan’s position is very understandable and regrettable in the circumstances but he lives in a border area and our feelings must go out to him and to his family this morning,” he said.

Prof Rea said the bodies would continue with their work across the North despite a number of other threats being issued by dissident republicans.

“The partnerships are being forged at local level in the delivery of community policing and one can only but commend people for their service and their commitment and their dedication,” he said.

Prof Rea also called for progress in the peace process.

“A political settlement will remove the vacuum in which such things that have happened overnight have happened,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.

“Acts of completion, the coming of Sinn Féin on to the Policing Board, all of these, as well as the greater normalisation of politics, will assist and put such people who perpetrate such acts further into a corner.”

The death threat against Mr O’Dolan is the latest incident in a campaign by dissident republicans against the new policing structures in Northern Ireland.

Bullets were sent to the Derry home of Denis Bradley, the deputy chairman of Northern Ireland’s Policing Board in August.

Police believe dissident republicans were behind that threat and linked it with a similar package sent to the home of Marion Quinn, a member of the District Policing Partnership in the city.

District Policing Partnerships were set up across Northern Ireland as part of reforms initiated by former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten.

Councillors and members of the local community sit on the boards and work alongside the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s 29 District Command Units in an attempt to meet local community policing needs.

Sinn Féin has boycotted the new structures, insisting the British government’s policing reforms need to go further if they are to participate.