Sinn FΘin's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, said the deaths of two children in the 1993 Warrington bomb was "wrong" and "should not have happened".
On a visit to Warrington, England, on Saturday, Mr McGuinness met relatives of Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball who died in the bomb. While not disclosing whether he had apologised to their parents in the private meeting, the Sinn FΘin Minister of Education said events such as Warrington put an additional onus on politicians to make the peace process work.
"The killing of Johnathan and Tim was wrong. It should not have happened and there is a responsibility on all of us to bring about a peace process."
Tim Parry (1), and three-year-old Johnathan Ball were killed when two Provisional IRA bombs exploded in Warrington town centre in March 1993. Tim's father, Colin, has since become actively involved in work to support the peace process.
In an interview on BBC Radio Ulster, Mr Parry said he took Mr McGuinness's comments as a clear and unequivocal apology. While the meeting had not made him feel any different about the death of his son, it had nonetheless been "positive and reassuring".
"Judging Martin McGuinness entirely as he was last night and not as I have seen him on the television screens down the years, the man gave a very good impression. I came away from the meeting far more convinced than I would have been otherwise that his commitment to making the process work is very, very strong," he said.