LOYALIST paramilitary leaders had to prevent their members from going to carry out an attack in a Catholic area of Belfast on Friday night within hours of the IRA bomb in London, it has been learned.
A group of loyalists, who had been drinking in a Shankill Road public house when the news of the bombing came through, tried to hijack a car with the apparent intention of carrying out an assassination.
The car owner refused to allow the men to have his car and a shot was fired into a house in Shankill Parade.
Local people called the loyalist leaders in the Shankill and they then intervened and persuaded the group to hand over the gun. After the incident on the Shankill Road the RUC immediately stepped up security in Belfast.
Loyalist paramilitary leaders met in Belfast at the weekend and decided against any immediate response to the IRA attack. They stressed, however, that any further attacks would have serious consequences, and at least one of their political spokesmen said there was already talk in those circles of possible retaliation in the Republic.
There was no indication last night from the loyalists of the likely response, but it is suspected they will hold back from any retaliation until the IRA's intentions become more apparent.
As deep uncertainty surrounded both the political process and the security situation, several leading Sinn Fein spokesmen yesterday indicated that the party still has the capacity, given the right conditions, to influence the IRA into resuming its ceasefire.
The North remained tense, with heavily armed police patrols in evidence. At several strategic points, such as the approaches to Belfast International Airport, they were backed up by British army units.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, expressing disappointment at the response of the Government to his request for a meeting, said it was "simply not good enough to walk away from a peace process which took so long and so much effort to build".
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, the Sinn Fein national chairman said the party still had the capacity to deliver the republican community intact - including, by implication the IRA - into the peace process.
"I am saying that we can construct yet again the conditions which made possible an IRA ceasefire," he said. "But we cannot do it on our own."
However, Mr Martin McGuinness said that he had no case to put to the IRA at the moment to get them to call off their military campaign again.
The Sinn Fein leaders insisted that the British and Irish prime ministers should meet Mr Adams in order to salvage the process and take the situation forward.
There were signs that the British government - like Dublin - was anxious to retain informal lines of communication to Sinn Fein. The Northern Security Minister, Sir John Wheeler, said: "There are always sinews of contact. If you are to stop people being killed you must retain a link".
Unionist spokesmen continued to press their demand for elections to a "peace convention". The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, said it would be "quite reprehensible if there was any suggestion that the democratic process should be set aside because people have resorted to violence."
Any active political initiatives were held in abeyance, however, as the public and politicians waited anxiously to see whether there would be a repetition of Friday's attack. There is still uncertainty as to whether it was a single incident or marked the start of a renewed bombing campaign in Britain.
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, called on both governments to invite all parties to the talks table and said that, in parallel, there should be an independent commission to deal with disarmament.