Tuesday 11th February 2003

Bishop Michael Jackson, Church of Ireland Bishop of Clogher, today expressed his concerns following the bomb outrage at the Town Hall, Enniskillen yesterday.

Bishop Jackson said: “The phrase ‘Enniskillen bomb’ still sends shock-waves of pain and fear throughout our society. Those of us who remember that terrible human tragedy had hoped never again to hear the two words used together.

"In expressing my own intense sadness and great anxiety at the planting of Monday night’s bomb in Enniskillen I am confident that the vast majority of people in County Fermanagh today, all of whom are relieved that there has been no loss of life, speak with me. I express my concern at a time when peace is fragile and politics looks sterile in Northern Ireland. It is however a time when there is considerable hope of a new future for our country and a great groundswell of expectation that something good might yet come.

"My prayer is for peace and my hope is that such aspirations for accommodation and growth be not marred by cycles of terrorism and reprisal in Enniskillen and elsewhere.”