Manchester to get letter of sympathy

THE Northern Ireland forum is to send a letter of sympathy and support to Manchester following the IRA bomb. The acting chairman, Mr John Gorman, will send the letter after the parties condemned the bombing during yesterday's session.

The Ulster Unionist security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, said those committed to the democratic process "are not going to be diverted by the IRA no matter whether we have to resist them for another 25 years.

"They have lost the ideological and intellectual argument that they put in their own terms. We will resist this and any other attempts to disrupt our attempts to find a way forward."

The DUP leader, Dr Ian Paisley, said as the people of Manchester picked up the pieces after the bomb, they would have some inkling of what the people of Northern Ireland have had to go through.

Ms Brid Rodgers of the SDLP also expressed her sympathy and said "the shock, outrage and revulsion felt by the whole community at what happened in Manchester speaks for itself".

The Alliance Party leader, Dr John Alderdice, said: "We have to redouble our efforts to reach a political settlement."

Mr Hugh Smyth of the Progressive Unionist Party said "these people who plant these bombs talk about lack of employment", and he wondered how many jobs could have been created with the £100 million in damage caused by the Manchester blast.

Mr Cedric Wilson of the UK Unionist Party said the "crocodile tears" of the Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, "in attempting to distance Sinn Fein from activities of the IRA" added insult to injury. He said "we as the keepers of the democracy should take every step to exclude them from the democratic process".

The leader of the UDP, Mr Gary McMichael, said his party was absolutely appalled by the viciousness of the attack which he described as an "attack on the entire peace process".