We know the risks but we must stand firm, says Gerry Adams

Politicians, religious leaders and members of the public in Northern Ireland were united in their anger at the latest attack, which took the life of 25-year-old police recruit Ronan Kerr as he was heading to work in the town of Omagh on Saturday.

Mass-goers at the Christ the King Church, just yards from the scene of the bomb blast, heard words of condemnation from parish priest Fr Kevin McElhennon.

He said: “We as a community stand united with one another in our absolute and clear condemnation of yesterday’s murder.

“We stand too in our opposition to the misguided, blind, morally wrong and sinful ideology of those who planned, executed and supported the brutal murder of young Ronan.

“Many words come to my mind this morning. But no litany of words will ever come close to expressing how those closest to Ronan must feel at this time.”

Worshippers who stopped afterwards were also unanimous in expressing their outrage.

Retired education board worker Leo Crossey, 67, said: “It is not something anyone wants. People worry about everybody related to them who are in the police.”

Barry McCann, 34, a farmer from near Omagh, said: “I was very angry yesterday. It just gives you a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. They are just taking us back to the bad old days that we thought we were getting out of.”

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said young Catholics should not be deterred from joining the police by the bomb attack.

He said: “They should still join, we need civil policing, community policing. People know the risks.

“There is risk in all that we do, all of us who are agents of change all run risks. Right across the island we need to have a sense of public service policing. Young nationalists and republicans can be part of that. I can’t speak for Ronan Kerr, of course, but I presume by his example that he would say exactly the same thing.”

A man whose son died in the Omagh bombing of 1998 has branded the latest murderous attack as a “double insult”.

Michael Gallagher lost his 21-year-old son Aidan in the dissident republican Real IRA blast which killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.

He said the latest killing in Omagh would revive horrific memories for people living in the town.

“Omagh will be a very sad place. They have changed an entire family and family circle forever. That is the reality of what has happened here.

“I feel a lot of anger that another young life has been stolen, and that this has happened again in our town,” he said.

Former Northern Ireland chief constable Sir Hugh Orde said the dissidents carrying out the latest attacks had no public backing.

He said: “What is different about this campaign, so-called, is that it has absolutely no community support whereas one could not argue the same of the old IRA campaign. Every citizen is saying, we don’t want any part of this, we want these people to go away.

“I think we are now at another tipping point rather like when I lost constable Stephen Carroll very sadly on March 9, 2009.

“The community stepped forward in that case and a court case is under way in the near future.

“We need communities to step forward again and say ‘we will not tolerate this, we will go the extra yard.

“We know who these people are and we will give them up so we can get on with a peaceful Northern Ireland’.”