MINDLESS, senseless and cowardly acts of violence and brutality were condemned last evening by the Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe, the Right Rev Edward Darling.
He also accused the politicians of being "too entrenched in their own positions".
The bishop was introducing a peace rally in St Mary's Cathedral, Limerick, held in response to the murders of Det Garda Jerry McCabe in Adare and journalist Veronica Guerin in Dublin.
Dr Darling said that once again a cloud had been cast over the land and "we come here because our whole community and particularly his own family have been deprived of a good man and a dedicated policeman like Jerry McCabe.
"We come here because that same barbarism has caused the death of a brave journalist, Veronica Guerin, who was not afraid to speak the truth. We come because terrorists think nothing of causing untold damage in devastating an English city like Manchester. We come in frustration and despair because we are not sure just where it is all going to end.
"We come because our hopes of peace have been shattered by it all. We come because we are now cynically asking if those who wished to be included in the all party talks to try and establish a more permanent sense of peace ever really wanted peace.
We come to express our solidarity in this dreadful and precarious situation in which we now find ourselves, but above all we come to pray for peace.
"We come not just believing that God can avert the danger and the threat that once more hangs over us, but because praying for peace together and going out from here and praying for peace in our own private lives will help to condition us all towards thinking more positively about peace, about our renewed responsibility to do all we can to create a new climate of peace."
He continued Blessed are the peacemakers said Our Lord in His Sermon on the Mount, and that ideal is challenging us all today more than ever before. This means that we have got to learn to trust one another, to listen to one another, to forgive one another and to learn from one another.
"The politicians have not been able to do that for us. Indeed I honestly believe that some of them have never really learnt the lesson of trusting "and listening and forgiving and learning.
"They are too entrenched in their own positions. They are too afraid of surrendering their own sense of power and privilege which they have enjoyed down through the years.
"One by one therefore we must seize the challenge to be peacemakers and if by our concerted actions we succeed in creating a more peaceful Ireland, then perhaps Jerry McCabe and Veronica Guerin won't have died in vain.
"It is as serious as that. A big responsibility lies on the shoulders of us all. Therefore, let us put our trust in the power of, prayer and ask that we will have the strength to rise to the challenge of being peacemakers."
Bishop Donal Murray, who is in the US, was represented by Mgr Michael Lane, vice general of the Catholic diocese.
The Mayor of Limerick, Mr Jim Kemmy TD, was present, as was the former minister, Mr Tom O'Donnell, now chairman of the Peace Institute based at the University of Limerick.
Chief Supt Michael Fitzgerald represented the Garda, while Lieut Col Colm Doyle represented the Defence Forces. Mr Owen South represented the NUJ. Lord and Lady Dunraven represented the people of Adare.