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The Twelfth: Blast blamed on dissidents
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
The Orange Order has blamed dissident republicans for causing a “minor explosion” in Armagh city as major Twelfth celebrations were going on.
No-one was injured in the small blast which went off in the area of Friary Road yesterday afternoon as the Orange Order took part in Northern Ireland biggest demonstration.
Police said an Army bomb disposal team made the device safe after it was discovered.
Chief Inspector Ken Mawhinney said those behind the device had a total disregard for the people of Armagh. “These people do not care about the possible tragic outcome of their criminal activities. They must be isolated,” he said.
He did not comment on the size of the device or who police thought had planted it.
The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland issued a statement blaming dissident republicans and saying a death could easily have been caused.
“There are clearly republican dissidents in the community who want to cause as much tension as they can and today’s bomb could easily have killed people. As it turned out, fortunately no-one was injured.”
The statement said Orange leaders were calling on the nationalist community “to show respect and tolerance to our culture”.
“The republican dissidents clearly have no intention of respecting our culture and we ask the wider nationalist community to isolate them,” the statement added.
“We also appeal to the Protestant community not to fall into the trap of reprisal attacks. The best people to deal with these thugs is the police and we ask the public to give them any information they have on any of these incidents.”
Armagh mayor Thomas O'Hanlon said that those behind the bomb attack had shown a total disregard for human life.
“It's ironic that these dissident elements choose to plant such a device in what is a predominantly nationalist area,” said the SDLP councillor.
The police have urged anyone with information on the bomb attack to contact them.
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as an ex-pat and a true republican i can honestly say I'm disguisted..my family moved from west belfast 20 years ago to
America and i kiss to ground here. I know the politics don't live don't let it live me. teach you're children to break the cycle...
Posted by kara | 14.07.09, 05:16 GMT