The Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, and her security minister, Mr Adam Ingram, are to meet senior prison administration officials today to discuss the lapse of security in the Maze which led to the murder of Billy Wright, leader of the Loyalist Volunteer Force.
Tension was high throughout Northern Ireland last night and there were fears of further paramilitary attacks. Political leaders appealed for calm amid concern that the violence might spill over into the Republic.
It is understood that an LVF group killed Mr Seamus Dillon, a security guard at the Glengannon Hotel in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, in reprisal for the murder of Mr Wright.
Mr Dillon was a former republican prisoner who had served a life sentence for a murder committed in 1980.
Three other people, two of them security guards, were injured in the shooting outside the Glen gannon Hotel on Saturday night. One of the guards, a 39-year-old man, was said to be in a serious but stable condition last night in a Belfast hospital; the condition of the other guard and a teenage bar attendant was described as stable.
According to some reports, the LVF group had originally planned to shoot into a crowded discotheque at the hotel, but retreated when challenged.
Security sources quoted by the Press Association said: "It seems as if the disco was going to be the intended target. Once the bouncers showed up they obviously decided to shoot there and then. One death is bad enough, but we could have had a massacre of an unimaginable scale on our hands."
Senior Garda officers ordered a major step-up in mobile patrols around Dundalk, Castleblayney, Monaghan and Cavan last night in the wake of the shootings. Garda foot patrols were also increased in towns close to the Border and a close watch was being kept on all Northern-registered vehicles.
The Taoiseach met senior security officials for a briefing on the circumstances of Mr Wright's killing. Mr Ahern, with the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, and the secretary of the Department of Justice, Mr Tim Dalton, also discussed possible measures to be taken in the event of reprisals.
A spokesman said last night that the Taoiseach was highly conscious of the dangers of a new bout of sectarian violence.
Dr Mowlam spoke to representatives of all the parties involved in the Stormont talks. She said they were "united in a call for calm" and against any disruption of the peace process by violence.