WIDESPREAD condemnation greeted yesterday's chaos in England when the road and rail network was paralysed by two bombs and a series of bomb warnings.
Leeds, Doncaster, Stoke on Trent and Crewe stations were all shut and the centres of each of the towns cordoned off. Police also closed down two long sections of the M6, in Staffordshire and north of Manchester.
Huge queues built up on thc M6 and the area was busy even after the sections were reopened.
Two bombs exploded at Leeds and Doncaster railway stations during the morning rush hour and army disposal officers carried out two controlled explosions at Stoke on Trent railway station. Police were evacuating the three city centres after receiving simultaneous warnings at 7 a.m. when the bombs exploded. No one was injured.
The bomb at Leeds was hidden in a signals cabin next to the station and exploded at 8.55 a.m. just as two commuter trains were pulling into the platforms.
The British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, who was campaigning in the area, condemned the attack, which he said bore the hallmarks of the IRA.
The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton said: "These antics by the Republican movement are designed to make the maximum difficulty for Irish people in Britain, to create the maximum hostility among British people to Irish causes and in effect they make the resolution of the justifiable concerns of the nationalist community in Northern Ireland more difficult to resolve."
The Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Spring, described the events as "dangerous and irresponsible". Mr John Hume also condemned the disruption, and the PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, accused Sinn Fein and the IRA "of operating a single Provo strategy".
However, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said that while the responsibility for the disruption in Britain belonged to those who caused it, he blamed Mr Major for smashing an opportunity to "bring all this to an end".
The British Labour leader Mr Tony Blair, warned that Sinn Fein risked being left out of the peace process forever.
In a strongly worded condemnation of the attack, Mr Blair denounced the bombs as "outrageous" and stressed that the IRA will not succeed in disrupting the British election campaign.
West Yorkshire Chief Constable Mr Keith Hellawell accused the IRA of sinking to new "depths of depravity because the bomb warnings had not included a recognised IRA code word. However, police believed them to be serious and began to evacuate the area.
Last night a section of the M42 in Warwickshire and the West Midlands was closed after a new security alert.
. In a separate development a man was charged in connection with the bombing of London's Docklands, which ended the IRA ceasefire on February 9th last year.
The man, who has not been named, will appear before Belmarsh magistrates at 2 p.m. today. He has been accused of two counts of murder and conspiracy to cause the explosion.
The man, believed to be from the village of Cullyhana, south Armagh, was among seven men arrested when police and troops swooped on a farmhouse. Another man, Mr Patrick McKinley (32) from Mullaghbawn, south Armagh, has already been charged in connection with the Docklands bombing.