DISSIDENT REPUBLICANS were suspected of being behind a number of security alerts in nationalist parts of Belfast and Lurgan yesterday.
Armed men hijacked a number of vehicles which were then set alight yesterday evening. The Police Service of Northern Ireland station at Tennant Street in north Belfast was also closed because of a bomb alert. A number of city roads were closed because of the trouble, causing widespread traffic disruption.
Earlier, in the Assembly, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness acknowledged that dissident republicans would continue to threaten the peace process and the powersharing political structures, but insisted that they would not succeed.
First Minister Peter Robinson also disclosed that the PSNI was receiving information from republicans that was “crucial” in the arrests relating to the Real IRA murders of British soldiers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey and the Continuity IRA murder of PSNI Constable Stephen Carroll.
“One should not underestimate the value of the united community response to the dissident republican terrorists,” said Mr Robinson in Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone last night.
“Indeed, the PSNI told me that information received from the republican community has played a crucial role in the arrests and charges in connection with both murder incidents. This transformed situation is a positive sign for the future and I welcome it,” he added.
Mr McGuinness said yesterday in the Assembly that Northern Ireland and its politicians had survived the huge test that the dissident republicans had set for them in recent weeks.
The actions of groups such as the Real IRA and Continuity IRA were totally and absolutely futile although he knew they would continue to test the peace process, he added.
Mr McGuinness said the recent murders were designed to “destroy the peace process, to bring tens of thousands of British soldiers back on to the streets, to see mayhem in the political process and to see the destruction of these political institutions”.
They were also attempting to drive a wedge between him and Mr Robinson and to cause other political divisions. But they had not succeeded and that was to the credit of Northern politicians.
“We have been tested big time by these people but they got their answer, and the answer is very, very clear: we are not going to be diverted, we are not going to be deflected, and we are not going to be threatened by anybody,” he said.
Mr McGuinness said he was recently in Parliament Buildings when several people visiting Stormont came up to him to say they had been too complacent about the peace process, how they were shocked by the murders but how they “were tremendously encouraged by the way the political parties had responded to the challenge”.
Mr McGuinness referred to a press conference given in Belfast last week by Republican Sinn Féin, viewed as the political wing of the Continuity IRA which murdered Constable Carroll.
“These people talked about bringing an end to British rule and [achieving] the unification of Ireland. These are people who can’t even unite among themselves. How they can ever hope to reunite Ireland is a mystery to me.”