There was widespread anxiety in Northern Ireland last night that there may be further outbreaks of violence following the funeral of murdered loyalist leader Billy Wright at Portadown this afternoon.
There was deep concern over reports that orchestrated rioting would take place in Portadown and possibly also in other towns such as Ballymena and Dungannon.
Moves to tighten security at the Maze Prison, in the wake of Wright's assassination there, were criticised as insufficient. Meanwhile, the Alliance Party leader, Lord Alderdice, called on the Northern Secretary to reconvene the Stormont talks immediately to discuss "the deteriorating security situation".
The North's Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, announced that the chief inspector of prisons for England and Wales, Gen Sir David Ramsbotham, would carry out a detailed inspection of the Maze. The inquiry into the escape of a republican prisoner, Liam Averill, will be extended to include the Wright shooting last Saturday morning. A programme of random searches, due to begin in the new year, has been brought forward.
"This prison is unique in the whole of the democratic world," Mr Ingram said. "Nowhere else is there such a concentration of dedicated paramilitaries and terrorists, and that does make a very unique situation."
He rejected calls for senior politicians and officials to step down: "Resignations are not on the cards. Clearly, it was a very embarrassing situation at the weekend, and one we could well have done without, and we don't want to see a repetition of it."
However, Mr Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said that the moves were both contemptible and complacent. The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, called for a "no-holds-barred independent inquiry" into the regime at the Maze.
Dr Paisley added: "I do not believe the murder happened because of an operational failure within the prison, but it was allowed to happen because of a strategic failure, for which the Northern Ireland Office is responsible. Mo Mowlam must take full responsibility for her prison policy."
The chairman of the Northern Ireland Prison Officers Association, Mr Finlay Spratt, said he hoped more frequent searches would prevent a recurrence of events similar to the Wright shooting. He added: "Had proper searches been carried out, then I believe that incident last Saturday wouldn't have happened."
Mr Spratt also said that a prison officer who might have observed Mr Wright's attackers preparing for the shooting had been moved from a watch tower to other duties shortly beforehand. The watchtower was left unmanned.
Lord Alderdice doubted that the new measures would create a climate of confidence. If the British government really believed the parties to the talks might be running affairs in Northern Ireland in a year or two then senior party representatives should be invited to discuss the security situation.
Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, said the strain on the peace process was due to the refusal of the Ulster Unionists and fringe loyalist parties to negotiate face-to-face with Sinn Fein. "Therefore these parties must accept culpability for the deterioration of the situation over the weekend as the consequences of this non-participation," he said.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party, the political wing of the INLA, the group which carried out the Maze killing, said it was opposed to the current political process, which could not deliver peace "because of preconditions insisted upon by the British government and unionists".
Three prisoners from the Maze were charged at Lisburn Magistrates Court yesterday with the murder of Billy Wright and with possessing two firearms and a quantity of ammunition. They were taken to and from the court in an armoured prison van escorted by four RUC Land-Rovers.