Ministers condemn dissident bomb attack

Government ministers today condemned a suspected dissident republican bomb attack outside a police station in the North.

Dermot Ahern, Justice Minister and TD for Louth, which senior detectives have warned is being used as a base by terrorists, condemned the attack and declared: “The dissidents will not succeed.”

A man and an elderly woman sustained non-life-threatening injuries in the explosion in Newtownhamilton, south Armagh.

Mr Ahern said the entire island of Ireland is against dissidents.

“They need sectarian hate to fuel their campaign. No republican can support such people. They offer only division and violence,” the minister said.

“As was clear from my meeting with (the North's justice) minister David Ford and the police chiefs last week, the PSNI and Garda Síochána are united in their determination to thwart these people.

“The people of Ireland stand with their police services in their efforts.”

Police in the north have faced heavy criticism for the time taken to respond to the bomb threat amid claims they arrived 50 minutes after terrorists responsible telephoned a bomb warning to a hospital.

Micheal Martin, Foreign Affairs Minister, said the attack was reckless and senseless.

“Those who carry out such acts and seek to justify them in the name of the Republic are wrong and misguided. The only viable road to unity on this island lies through peace, tolerance, persuasion and agreement,” Mr Martin said.

“Violence and coercion serve no purpose in modern Ireland other than to delay reconciliation.”

Mr Martin called on dissidents opposed to peace to stand back.

“To lash out in blind and resentful aggression against the efforts to establish peace, security and prosperity on this island, will not bring about unity, nor will it end the British presence on this island,” he warned.

“Acts of violence such as that visited upon the people of Newtownhamilton perpetuate sectarian division among our people and the partition of our country.

“In the name of the Republic, I call on those who commit these acts to stop.”