WE DON'T WANT ANOTHER OMAGH
We don't want another Omagh
By Staff Reporters
THE leader of Ireland's Catholics has made a direct appeal to republican dissidents to end attacks on police. In a special edition of The Irish News today Cardinal Sean Brady says those who target police officers "challenge the very principles of a just and a free society".
Pointing to the support for the Good Friday Agreement, he says attacks on the PSNI are "immoral and a direct challenge to the overwhelming and freely expressed will of the people of Ireland."
Ten years after the Omagh bombing, in which dissident republicans murdered 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins, Dr Brady adds unequivocally that anyone with information about the attacks has "a clear moral duty" to give it to the PSNI or gardai.
More than a dozen police officers have been injured or had narrow escapes in efforts by dissident republicans to kill them during the past year.
Two were shot at close range while they were off duty in Derry and in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, last November.
Another was dragged to safety when a device exploded under his car in Castlederg, Co Tyrone, in May.
Dissidents have also caused other misery. Former Real IRA member Andrew Burns was killed in February, while pizza-delivery driver Emrnett Shiels (22) was murdered in June.
Dr Brady is critical of politicians who have been unable to choose "the common good over party-political good".
He says the failure of the executive to meet since June "is undermining those who believe Northern Ireland has a brighter future".
"It also encourages those who want to promote the failed ideologies of the past," the cardinal says.
"It gives space to those who promote the lie that violence has something to offer our future."
Dr Brady also cautions against the "glamorisation" of previous violence.
"There is a real danger that, as the years go on in Northern Ireland, we will forget the futility, destruction and misery wrought by the violence of the past", he says.
It brought "nothing but despair", the cardinal adds.
"It set back the prospects of justice, peace and freedom with every violent word and action."
By Staff Reporters
THE leader of Ireland's Catholics has made a direct appeal to republican dissidents to end attacks on police. In a special edition of The Irish News today Cardinal Sean Brady says those who target police officers "challenge the very principles of a just and a free society".
Pointing to the support for the Good Friday Agreement, he says attacks on the PSNI are "immoral and a direct challenge to the overwhelming and freely expressed will of the people of Ireland."
Ten years after the Omagh bombing, in which dissident republicans murdered 29 people including a woman pregnant with twins, Dr Brady adds unequivocally that anyone with information about the attacks has "a clear moral duty" to give it to the PSNI or gardai.
More than a dozen police officers have been injured or had narrow escapes in efforts by dissident republicans to kill them during the past year.
Two were shot at close range while they were off duty in Derry and in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, last November.
Another was dragged to safety when a device exploded under his car in Castlederg, Co Tyrone, in May.
Dissidents have also caused other misery. Former Real IRA member Andrew Burns was killed in February, while pizza-delivery driver Emrnett Shiels (22) was murdered in June.
Dr Brady is critical of politicians who have been unable to choose "the common good over party-political good".
He says the failure of the executive to meet since June "is undermining those who believe Northern Ireland has a brighter future".
"It also encourages those who want to promote the failed ideologies of the past," the cardinal says.
"It gives space to those who promote the lie that violence has something to offer our future."
Dr Brady also cautions against the "glamorisation" of previous violence.
"There is a real danger that, as the years go on in Northern Ireland, we will forget the futility, destruction and misery wrought by the violence of the past", he says.
It brought "nothing but despair", the cardinal adds.
"It set back the prospects of justice, peace and freedom with every violent word and action."
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0984
Published Date: 17-Nov-08
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