NO HIDING PLACE FOR MONSTERS
No hiding place for monsters
VOICE OF The Mirror
THE grief is growing even stronger and the tears are still flowing but a new feeling is coming out of the Omagh atrocity.
It is a determination that the people who did this - and all like them - must be caught and put away.
There are not many of them. The highest figure put on the breakaway terrorists is 100. It could be as low as 30.
Yesterday Mo Mowlam, the Northern Ireland Secretary, and John O'Donoghue, Ireland's Justice Minister, pledged to lock up these fanatics.
Internment - imprisonment without trial - was tried before and only made matters worse.
But what is being considered now is different - imprisoning those who belong to terrorist organisations on the word of a police chief.
Vindicated
It would not be acceptable in ordinary situations. But this is extraordinary. It is war.
Those who will bomb, kill and maim innocent children, women and men must be put where they can do no harm.
It is what the people want. They voted overwhelmingly north and south of the border for peace. Yet a handful of psychopaths are determined to continue the bloodshed.
They have given an opportunity to those who opposed the Good Friday agreement to say their belief has been cruelly vindicated.
But this is no time to play politics. Everyone should be uniting in sympathy for the victims and against the real men of violence.
Not that much can be hoped for from Francie Mackey, the Omagh councillor who refuses to condemn the bombers who tore the heart out of the town he represents.
The first task of the political leaders is to have the killers thrown into jail. The next is to isolate those like Mackey in both communities.
The grief and anger over the Omagh atrocity must not obscure the way forward.
Future
The remaining terrorists must be put where they cannot plant a bomb or fire a bullet. Only when that is done will the way be clear for a genuinely peaceful future.
The scars of what happened in Omagh on Saturday will be with the victims for a very long time. Just as the scars of Northern Ireland's vast will not fade for many, many
There is no future for the dead of Omagh. There may be none for those who are driven by blind hatred and bloodlust.
But there can still be a good future for the great majority in Northern Ireland. And there must be.
VOICE OF The Mirror
THE grief is growing even stronger and the tears are still flowing but a new feeling is coming out of the Omagh atrocity.
It is a determination that the people who did this - and all like them - must be caught and put away.
There are not many of them. The highest figure put on the breakaway terrorists is 100. It could be as low as 30.
Yesterday Mo Mowlam, the Northern Ireland Secretary, and John O'Donoghue, Ireland's Justice Minister, pledged to lock up these fanatics.
Internment - imprisonment without trial - was tried before and only made matters worse.
But what is being considered now is different - imprisoning those who belong to terrorist organisations on the word of a police chief.
Vindicated
It would not be acceptable in ordinary situations. But this is extraordinary. It is war.
Those who will bomb, kill and maim innocent children, women and men must be put where they can do no harm.
It is what the people want. They voted overwhelmingly north and south of the border for peace. Yet a handful of psychopaths are determined to continue the bloodshed.
They have given an opportunity to those who opposed the Good Friday agreement to say their belief has been cruelly vindicated.
But this is no time to play politics. Everyone should be uniting in sympathy for the victims and against the real men of violence.
Not that much can be hoped for from Francie Mackey, the Omagh councillor who refuses to condemn the bombers who tore the heart out of the town he represents.
The first task of the political leaders is to have the killers thrown into jail. The next is to isolate those like Mackey in both communities.
The grief and anger over the Omagh atrocity must not obscure the way forward.
Future
The remaining terrorists must be put where they cannot plant a bomb or fire a bullet. Only when that is done will the way be clear for a genuinely peaceful future.
The scars of what happened in Omagh on Saturday will be with the victims for a very long time. Just as the scars of Northern Ireland's vast will not fade for many, many
There is no future for the dead of Omagh. There may be none for those who are driven by blind hatred and bloodlust.
But there can still be a good future for the great majority in Northern Ireland. And there must be.
Further Information
Publisher: THE MIRROR
Ref: TM/025
Published Date: 18-Aug-98
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