Breivik a lone killer, not part of terrorist organisation, thankfully

IT is disturbing to think that, although we enjoy relative peace these days, dozens of terrorist attacks are being planned in Ireland at any one time.

To a large extent the threat comes from dissident republicans, although a watchful eye is increasingly kept on other groups, not all of them fighting for or against the idea of 32-county democratic socialist republic.

That does not, mercifully, keep us awake at night. We trust all of these organisations are well infiltrated by the gardaí and the PSNI — and there were large numbers of arrests in Cork and west Ulster last month — but sometimes, as in the case of Catholic police officer Ronan Kerr, murdered in Omagh in April, they get lucky.