COWARDS CAN'T WIN
Cowards can't win
NO ONE has ever heard the sound of a heart breaking but we came close as the names of the 28 victims of the Omagh bombing were read out yesterday.
It is impossible to imagine the agony of Kevin Skelton who told how he saw his wife lying face down in the rubble "like a raggy doll.'' It is hardly surprising that numb sorrow and an overwhelming sense of helplessness grips the country as the emotional after-shock of the worst atrocity ever in the North's violent history strikes.
This was a great human tragedy. Any cause that sees the slaughter of nine children and a pregnant mother as worthwhile has to be crushed.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has made it clear there will be no hiding place for the cowards who planted a bomb to mangle infants and toddlers, while they themselves stole away to safety. Both Governments have the necessary laws and security services to hunt them down and take them out.
It is right we should be outraged and it is understandable that revulsion and anger are so palpable, but however difficult it is to maintain a sense of order in the face of such horror, it is what the situation demands.
After the Good Friday Agreement we thought we had seen the last of such atrocities. We were wrong, but the fault does not lie with in the Agreement but rather in our failure to recognise the demonic intent of a tiny fascist minority who would blindly wipe out all opposition in the flick of a trip-switch.
They must be dealt with in an equally ruthless manner and the Gardai and the RUC must be given full public support in wiping them out.
This appalling and senseless outrage was visited on an innocent and peaceful community with the sole purpose of wrecking the peace process and driving the North back to the dark era of the bomb and the bullet.
The twisted objective was that people would be so enflamed and embittered that there would be a backlash against the Accord, and the hope that nationalists and unionists could ever share power would be quashed.
Now more than ever it is essential that leaders in both communities hold their nerve and face down the threat from this demented few. Mr Ahern is right, we owe it to the dead that these murderous butchers be brought to justice.
There can be no sanctuary or safe houses for the perpetrators of such savagery.
NO ONE has ever heard the sound of a heart breaking but we came close as the names of the 28 victims of the Omagh bombing were read out yesterday.
It is impossible to imagine the agony of Kevin Skelton who told how he saw his wife lying face down in the rubble "like a raggy doll.'' It is hardly surprising that numb sorrow and an overwhelming sense of helplessness grips the country as the emotional after-shock of the worst atrocity ever in the North's violent history strikes.
This was a great human tragedy. Any cause that sees the slaughter of nine children and a pregnant mother as worthwhile has to be crushed.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has made it clear there will be no hiding place for the cowards who planted a bomb to mangle infants and toddlers, while they themselves stole away to safety. Both Governments have the necessary laws and security services to hunt them down and take them out.
It is right we should be outraged and it is understandable that revulsion and anger are so palpable, but however difficult it is to maintain a sense of order in the face of such horror, it is what the situation demands.
After the Good Friday Agreement we thought we had seen the last of such atrocities. We were wrong, but the fault does not lie with in the Agreement but rather in our failure to recognise the demonic intent of a tiny fascist minority who would blindly wipe out all opposition in the flick of a trip-switch.
They must be dealt with in an equally ruthless manner and the Gardai and the RUC must be given full public support in wiping them out.
This appalling and senseless outrage was visited on an innocent and peaceful community with the sole purpose of wrecking the peace process and driving the North back to the dark era of the bomb and the bullet.
The twisted objective was that people would be so enflamed and embittered that there would be a backlash against the Accord, and the hope that nationalists and unionists could ever share power would be quashed.
Now more than ever it is essential that leaders in both communities hold their nerve and face down the threat from this demented few. Mr Ahern is right, we owe it to the dead that these murderous butchers be brought to justice.
There can be no sanctuary or safe houses for the perpetrators of such savagery.
Further Information
Publisher: IRISH INDEPENDENT
Ref: II/045
Published Date: 18-Aug-98
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