Silent vigils as Ulster shows unity against dissident IRA killers
The people of Northern Ireland came together today in unprecedented unity against the men of violence.
Silent vigils were being held at Belfast, Lisburn, Newry, Downpatrick and Londonderry by families determined to oppose dissident IRA groups bringing terror back to their streets.
In the Commons, Gordon Brown and David Cameron were preparing to lead cross-party solidarity at the weekly Prime Minister's Questions, and MPs were staging a 15-minute silence.
The demonstrations of unity spanning political and religious divides marked the outrage of all sides to the murders of a policeman and two soldiers in an upsurge of violence designed to derail the peace process.
A boy aged 17 and a 37-year-old man were arrested last night over the murder of Constable Stephen Carroll, 48, in County Armagh.
Security chiefs are considering the possibility that the splinter group that claimed responsibility for his death, the Continuity IRA, has begun co-ordinating attacks with its rival group, the Real IRA, which claimed to have carried out the machinegun murders at Massereene barracks on Saturday.
There were minor disturbances in the night around Craigavon, close to where Mr Carroll was shot in the head while responding to a distressed woman. Youths pushed wheelie bins onto two roundabouts.
But Peter Bunting, the trade union leader organising today's vigils, said the vast majority of people were united against the "agenda of sectarianism".
"They must be faced down with a massive display of the unity of the people of Northern Ireland," he said. "We are determined not to be assigned into tight sectarian boxes."
London Mayor Boris Johnson declared that this Sunday's St Patrick's Day festival in the capital would be dedicated to the cause of peace. "Our thoughts go out to the families and colleagues of the men who have lost their lives as a result of these latest murders," he said.
Thousands are expected to attend a parade from Hyde Park and a concert in Trafalgar Square.
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson and his Sinn Fein deputy Martin McGuinness visited Mr Carroll's widow in her home last night.
