Indiscriminate attack on primary school disgusting and difficult to comprehend

Yesterday morning’s completely indiscriminate attack on the primary school children of St Comgall’s in Antrim as they arrived for another week absolutely disgusted me.

B e under no illusions, this was a real device carefully put together for one reason - to kill or seriously injure whoever happened to be in close proximity at that time.

There is no such thing as a responsible bomb, but the recklessness of someone prepared to place a bomb at a primary school where it could be picked up by an eight year old child and carried into the school is difficult to comprehend.

The vast majority of people had hoped that with the very significant progress which had been achieved towards a shared future in recent years, such acts of blatant sectarianism could be confined to the past.

Sadly there are still those within our communities, who no doubt have eight year old family members themselves’, who for whatever reason cannot contemplate the concept of mutual respect and understanding. This type of attack makes it difficult to imagine what their vision of the future is for their children.

It is unreasonable to expect the Police Service alone to deal with the cancer of deep seated hatred which obviously still exists within our community. We rightly deal with the symptoms of the problem but the cause requires everyone’s efforts. Northern Ireland is moving on.

What we need now is a real concerted effort to ensure we continue to move in the right direction. Condemnation of such attacks is welcome, but even more welcome is consistent action, from communities and community leaders, to isolate those who put the lives and the future of children - of all our children - at risk. Such action will ensure we really do move on.

As a police officer, and a parent, I share the collective responsibility to do everything I can to encourage tolerance and understanding of those who don’t necessarily share the same opinions or views as I do. We must all continue to work together to promote understanding and tolerance.

Together I believe we can make a difference and isolate those within our communities who clearly have a different agenda.