SENIOR security sources suspect the shooting of a woman RUC officer in Derry may mark the beginning of a renewed IRA campaign of attacks on RUC and British army targets along the Border.
Gardai have detected levels of IRA activity in Border areas comparable to the pre-August 1994 IRA ceasefire period. Recent intelligence reports point to increased IRA training, recruiting and targeting in Border areas, 505 say.
There was some confusion about IRA intentions, as hopes were being raised of a renewed ceasefire prior to the May 1st Westminster general election. But there was a growing belief last night that the timing of the shooting was a brutal and calculated response to the talk of the new ceasefire.
It is now feared the IRA intends to mount a series of attacks in Border and rural nationalist areas in Northern Ireland. Senior security sources also say the direction of the IRA campaign remains in the hands of figures who have no belief in the democratic process - even though two of the main IRA figures mentioned by sources are also prominent in Sinn Fein.
Loyalist sources indicated last night that the attack on the policewoman, which left her fighting for her life, would place the Combined Loyalist Military Command's ceasefire under increasing pressure. A senior loyalist source said it would now be extremely difficult to restrain militants who were already unhappy with the CLMC's stance.
Full-time reserve constable Ms Alice Collins (46), a mother of three, is known to hundreds of people in the city. Her regular duty is to stand guard outside the courthouse on Bishop Street in Derry's busy city centre. She was probably as familiar to her attackers as she was to the local people and day trippers who passed her way each day.
The attack was condemned by Irish, British and local politicians and church leaders. The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, described the shooting as a primitive act and repeated his assertion that a vote for Sinn Fein was a vote in support of the IRA. The party would be outside the political pale for as long as the violence continued, he added.
The Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, denounced the shooting as a "sickening attack" which would further delay Sinn Fein's acceptance as a constitutional party and entry into the peace talks.
The Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, also condemned the shooting but made no reference to its impact on Sinn Fein's entry to the talks process.
The Sinn Fein chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said the incident was a matter of regret which underlined the need for a credible peace process which would "lead us out of conflict and into negotiations".
Mr David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party which is linked to the UVF, said he was disgusted at the IRA. "There has been a lot of hype about the possibility of another IRA ceasefire. What we are witnessing seems to show that the IRA has exactly the opposite intention," he said.
A US administration official told The Irish Times "We strongly condemn continued IRA violence in Northern Ireland and in Britain and we urge an immediate unequivocal ceasefire."
A senior RUC officer nearby at the time of the attack said: "She was a soft target and her attackers definitely knew she was a woman as they were only 40 yards away. People might say that sort of thing shouldn't matter, but to my mind it does".
At the cordoned-off scene at the Diamond adjoining Bishop Street, another woman RUC officer joined with her colleagues last night in the follow-up operation. Every now and then she would break into tears. Her colleagues tried to console her.
At least two IRA members, possibly three, were involved in the shooting. It happened shortly before 4 p.m., a time when the IRA was rumoured to be declaring some form of truce. The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, said the shooting was a declaration of the IRA's true intent.
It was a single shot, described as an "awful crack" fired from a high- velocity rifle from the back of a white transit van, double-parked on the busy Bishop Street.
One of the gang, possibly the gunman or an accomplice, smashed the back window of the van. The gunman aimed and fired, hitting the woman in the back. The driver then sped away 10 the Diamond and down Butcher's Street. The shooting and the getaway took only seconds, although the IRA gang was forced to abandon its hijacked van at the entrance to the Bogside because of heavy traffic.
Constable Collins, based in Derry for over four years, slumped to the ground, blood pouring from her back. "I am shot, I am shot," she cried, as RUC colleagues and civilians rushed to assist her. A nurse was also quickly on the scene and within 10 minutes she was rushed by ambulance to Altnagelvin Hospital where her condition was described as seriously ill but stable.
The woman was struck less than 100 yards from where an RUC officer, Constable Michael Ferguson, was shot dead by an IRA man outside a shopping centre four years ago. The former SDLP chairman, Mr Mark Durkan, who was working in his party leader's office at the time of the shooting, rushed to the scene. He said the people of Derry were horrified.
"They do not want any violence against anyone on the streets of their city or in the name of their country", he said.