Ulster car-bomb attack victim regains consciousness

A ROMAN Catholic policeman who survived a republican bomb attack has regained consciousness and is showing signs of improvement, police confirmed yesterday.

Constable Peadar Heffron, 33, had his right leg amputated at the Royal Hospital in Belfast earlier this month.

He had just left his home outside Randalstown, Co Antrim, to start work in west Belfast when the device exploded under his blue Alfa Romeo car on January 8.

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A police spokeswoman said: "Constable Peadar Heffron is still described as critical but stable, however he has regained consciousness and is showing signs of improvement."

As captain of the Police Service of Northern Ireland's gaelic football team and a fluent Irish speaker, Pc Heffron represents the changing face of a service which is redressing a traditional religious imbalance in policing north of the border.

Last year Pc Heffron, who has served with the police for nine years, was among officers who attended the first meeting at which discussions in Londonderry between Policing Board officials and members of the public were conducted in the Irish language.

Democratic Unionist leader Peter Robinson, Sinn Fein deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, as well as other politicians and church leaders on all sides, have condemned the bombing.

It was the most recent in a series of attacks by dissidents.