PSNI CHIEF constable Sir Hugh Orde has warned that dissident republicans remain a significant threat, while Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said both forces were co-operating to crack down on dissidents.
The two made their comments following Saturday’s Continuity IRA landmine attack near Roslea in Co Fermanagh, which caused minor injuries to two PSNI officers.
The landmine, attached to a command wire and containing homemade explosives, partially exploded as the PSNI patrol passed by a bridge near Roslea. One man has been arrested in connection with the attack.
Sir Hugh said the threat was as high as at any time since he took over as chief constable.
“There are still a small number of people determined to wreck all that has been achieved in Northern Ireland,” he said at a conference on hate crime in Derry yesterday. “This is ultimate cowardice, sneaking away into the night after trying to blow up two officers who were on their way to deal with a call from the community they’re policing,” he said.
Mr Murphy said the Garda and the PSNI were working together “vigorously and continuously” to combat the dissident groups.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, who was at the conference, described the dissident organisations as “micro groups” who had no support and who would not succeed in returning Northern Ireland to “a vicious circle of conflict”. In the Assembly, former first minister, Rev Ian Paisley, said he was very concerned at the attack.
