Political leaders on both sides of the Border have strongly condemned those who planted a car bomb which exploded outside Newry courthouse in Co Down last night.
The car containing the 250-pound bomb was left at the gates of Newry courthouse at 10pm and police officers were notified of the suspicious vehicle a few minutes later.
A number of warnings were then telephoned to a local hospital and businesses. The PSNI was evacuating the area when the device detonated at 10.37pm.
The North’s First Minister Peter Robinson said: “The people who carried out this attack are determined to destroy all that has been achieved in recent months.”
“Their sole aim is to return Northern Ireland to its darkest past. They will not succeed, for I am equally determined that we will continue to move forward and to protect and defend the very same institutions they seek to destroy,” he said.
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness echoed Mr Robinson’s comments, saying he was determined the attack would not undermine the progress that has been made in the North.
“The perpetrators are acting against the democratically expressed wishes of all of the people of Ireland. They have nothing to offer our society,” he said. "We will continue on the road we have set out upon to deliver a better future. Attacks such as this are futile and serve only to strengthen our resolve."
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin described the bomb as a "reckless, cowardly, criminal act".
He said: "This attack cannot be justified or excused. Its only purpose was to inflict suffering. Its perpetrators have no mandate or legitimacy."
British prime minister Gordon Brown strongly condemned the bombers behind the Newry blast.
“Such action is, we believe, entirely unrepresentative of the views of the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland," Mr Brown's spokesman told reporters. “Northern Ireland’s politicians have been working incredibly hard to deliver a successful conclusion to the peace process and they will not allow a tiny minority to turn the clock back.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said dissident republicans have no interest in obtaining a united Ireland and accused them of ignoring the expressed will of people to achieve political change through peaceful means.
"There is a chance and it's been well chronicled and democratically endorsed to build justice and freedom through perfectly peaceful and democratic ways and that is not served by those who run for cover in the wake of an action like this," the West Belfast MP said at an event in Belfast. "Let them come forward if they have any stomach or guts at all and defend what's going on."
Mr Adams said republicans and unionists had every right to pursue political goals, but he questioned whether the dissidents had any such guiding principles. "I want to see a united Ireland," he said. "The people involved in these actions have no interest at all in a united Ireland."
DUP Policing Board member Peter Weir said the dissidents represented no right-minded individuals. “The shocking news of the car bomb tonight outside Newry courthouse is a reminder of the depravity and cruel disregard for human life of dissident republicans,” he said.
“These people care little for human life in their evil quest to drag us back to the past. It is both a reminder of the serious threat that they continue to pose, and of the need to continue to make political progress and continue to build a stable Northern Ireland", he said. “Government must take a tough stance against these violent dinosaurs, and continue to commit every resource necessary in the fight against these evil people."
SDLP Assembly member for the area Dominic Bradley also condemned the bombers. “We could easily have been looking at serious casualties or worse this evening and it is no credit at all to the bombers that as far as is known there were no injuries,” he said.
“People are saying that they got enough of this sort of thing during the Provo (Provisional IRA) campaign, it was wrong and senseless then and it is wrong now. They are very angry and they want the people responsible taken out of circulation and brought to justice.”
Ulster Unionist deputy leader Danny Kennedy said: “It’s a mercy and miracle there were no injuries or lives lost, either security force members, court service staff or local residents.”
The Newry and Armagh MLA said the attack was evidence of a deteriorating security situation and called for a harder line police approach. “The softly, softly approach taken by police in nationalist and republican areas clearly isn’t working because dissident republicans are filling that policing vacuum,” said Mr Kennedy.
Additional reporting by PA