SENIOR security figures in the Republic are still hopeful that the IRA is moving towards a second ceasefire, despite yesterday's bombing of a busy railway line in the north of England.
The sources say there is still a chance that the IRA will agree to a ceasefire to allow the Sinn Fein leadership to take up an offer of swift entry into inclusive talks on a political settlement in the North.
The hopes are said to be based on intelligence reports that the republican political leadership has re established itself after giving way to the militarists who demanded an end to the ceasefire in February last year. Since then the IRA campaign has been faltering with many activists arrested and arms seized.
Yesterday's bombing - the first in England since the huge attack on Manchester's commercial centre last June - was being seen as a "morale booster" for rank and file republicans prior to the republican Easter commemorations.
The attack on the railway station at Wilmslow, 10 miles south of Manchester, caused massive disruption to rail services but no injuries.
A bomb alert also closed Doncaster railway station in Yorkshire for eight hours yesterday.
A man claiming to be from the IRA made two calls at 5.30 am. saying there was a bomb at the station. But nothing was found during a thorough search.
There were two telephone warnings early yesterday morning before the two bombs in Wilmslow went off.
The Cheshire Chief Constable, Mr Mervyn Jones, said the first call, from a man with an Irish accent, was received by a woman resident of Wilmslow at 5.32 a.m. The caller, who used a code word, warned that there was a bomb at Wilmslow police station.
A second call to a hospital in Altrincham at 5.40 a.m. warned of a bomb at "the station", but omitted the word "police".
The first blast, which appeared to be centred on a junction box on the line near Wilmslow station, shook the surrounding residential area at around 6.30 a.m. The second explosion happened 35 minutes later, 50 metres down the line, near where firefighters were helping police set up a security cordon.
Assistant Chief Constable Ian Moody, head of special operations at Cheshire, told a news conference that he felt the second bomb was planted to endanger the lives of the emergency services staff responding to the first one.
A senior fire officer, Mr Geoff Hayes, said he and his crew were within 100 metres of the blast when the second bomb went off.
Describing the attack as "a truly appalling event", the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, said it represented a politically bankrupt strategy.
According to the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, those behind the attacks and threats were "living in cloud cuckoo land" if they believed their campaign would bring them nearer to a solution.
Raising the bombings in the Dail, the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said "These criminal acts have to be repudiated in the strongest terms."
Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, said responsibility for the bombs "rests with those who planted them." Sinn Fein's commitment to reconstructing the peace process "is absolute," he added.
"The opportunity still exists. The key is dialogue and the onus is on a British government to engage positively in the search for a lasting peace settlement."
Mr Major described the bombings as a two fingered insult to democracy at the start of the general election campaign in which Sinn Fein was fielding candidates right across Northern Ireland.
The British Labour leader, Mr Blair added: "The IRA should be in no doubt that whether it is the present government or any future," government, there will be an irons determination to stand up to outrages of this kind."
The mother of IRA victim, Tim Parry, who was killed by an IRA bomb at Warrington, yesterday condemned the attacks. Mrs Wendy Parry, said that the bombings had brought all the memories of her son flooding back.