The Northern Secretary has rejected calls for her resignation following the Billy Wright murder and the subsequent murder of a Catholic man at a hotel in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, by the Loyalist Volunteer Force on Saturday night. Dr Mo Mowlam said yesterday she did not believe her resignation was justified or that it would help the peace process. She described the killing of Mr Seamus Dillon at the Glengannon Hotel in Dungannon as "senseless and vicious" and said the peace process offered the only opportunity for stability and economic progress for more than a generation.
Mr Adam Ingram, the North's minister for prisons, is breaking his holiday to return to work today. Dr Mowlam said measures were being taken at the Maze. INLA prisoners have been moved to another block of the prison, where they will be questioned by the RUC, she said.
The Ulster Unionist Party's security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, called for Dr Mowlam's resignation, as did his party colleague Mr William Ross, who said she was "ultimately responsible for the state of affairs in the Maze prison".
Mr Maginnis said terrorists were thriving because society as a whole, the police service and prison officers, were demoralised. In relation to the killing of Mr Dillon, he said: "Nothing justifies such action, irrespective of the provocation."
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said it was quite clear that the people who carried out the "appalling murder" inside the Maze were trying to provoke retaliation in order to wreck the peace process. Mr Dillon's murderers had fallen into the trap.
"One begins to wonder if there are people on both sides who are really together in the sense that having lived with troubles, that they can't live without them," said Mr Hume.
Mr Peter Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party said the current peace process was based on the premise that you have to make concessions to terrorists in order to stop them from creating more violence, and that this was encouraging others "to create a situation where there is violence, so that they will get rewarded as well".
Mr David Ervine said both the INLA and the LVF were attempting to destroy the peace process, and that they were following a path that could lead to "disaster".
Sinn Fein's Mid-Ulster MP, Mr Martin McGuinness, described the murder of Mr Dillon as "indiscriminate and unjustifiable" and said no-one should try to justify the murder by attempting to find an excuse for it. Earlier, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said the killing of Billy Wright was "a reminder that the causes of conflict remain" and called on unionist leader to work "constructively" at the talks.
The leader of the Alliance Party, Lord Alderdice, condemned both killings, saying there were people on both sides who were "doing everything possible to wreck individual lives, as well as the prospects for peace".
The Catholic Primate, Archbishop Sean Brady, said: "I condemn the shootings of recent days which have claimed two lives and left others injured. I offer my sympathy to the families of the dead and to those who have been injured. I call for calm and restraint. I appeal to everyone who genuinely wants peace not to be diverted into the path of violence".
The Moderator of the Presbyterian church, Dr Sam Hutchinson, said society did not want to be "held to ransom by feuding between ruthless killers" and that the time had come for a total and permanent cease-fire by all paramilitary groups.