Councillor: Dissidents won't stop police reforms
Dissident republicans who sent a parcel bomb to the home of a nationalist politician will not stop police reforms from going ahead, it was claimed today.
SDLP councillor Michael Carr, vice chairman of Newry and Mourne District Policing Partnership, said the device sent to his home in Warrenpoint, Co Down, could have caused serious injury.
“Even if I dropped out, policing changes will go ahead. There is so much support for the reforms,” he said.
Mr Carr has been threatened in the past by the Real IRA but this is the first time his home has been attacked.
“There is no support for what they are doing among the nationalist people of Ireland. It is a pretty degrading step for so-called republicans to be attacking nationalist people.
“It is a worrying escalation. They are sending a message I suppose. They haven’t received the message that this process is going to happen,” he added.
Army bomb disposal experts made safe the device, which police described as “crude but viable”.
Mr Carr said it was fortunate he was the only person in the house when the package was delivered.
The SDLP representative is the latest target in a sustained campaign of intimidation perpetrated by dissident republicans against nationalist DPP members.
