N Ireland bomb inflames peace process worries
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Recently things seemed to be on the up for Northern Ireland after the UK prime minister's Bloody Sunday apology went some way to healing old wounds and Londonderry won its Capital of Culture bid, but this morning's car bombing showed that the peace process still has far to go.
The car bomb went off outside a police station in Northern Ireland's second city of Londonderry in the early hours of this morning.
Police said that a taxi driver was forced at gunpoint to drive the bomb into the centre of the city, where the device exploded causing damage to the station and surrounding properties. The taxi driver managed to escape before it detonated and no-one was hurt in the blast.
The attack has been blamed on dissident republicans who are opposed to the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland. It comes just weeks after the inquiry into the 1972 Bloody Sunday killings in Londonderry was published and UK Prime Minister David Cameron made a formal apology for the shootings by British troops.
Local politicans have already spoken out, condemning the attack but insisting it will have no effect on the peace process.
Euranet's Northern Ireland correspondent Peter Taggart says many people had been hoping that the province had turned a corner with the Bloody Sunday report and Londonderry's winning bid to be the UK's 2013 Capital of Culture, but the bombing and the recent rioting in Belfast have served as a bitter reminder that the peace process is by no means completed.
"At this stage we are wondering what is going to happen and just how strong are the dissidents," he says.
