The Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Sean Brady, yesterday urged the US government not to indiscriminately seek revenge against its perceived enemies. He told a remembrance mass in Armagh for the victims of Tuesday's outrages that violence only sowed the seeds of future hatred and conflict.
Joining Dr Brady at St Malachy's Church was his predecessor, Cardinal Cahal Daly and Mr Tom Constantine, the US oversight commissioner for police reform in the North, representing US Consul General to Belfast, Ms Barbara Stephenson, and a native of Albany, New York State. Dr Brady urged the Bush administration to keep a cool head in the face of calls for an immediate military strike against Muslim targets. Years of political violence had left the Irish people uniquely qualified to share America's loss, he said.
Towns across the North came to a standstill at 11 a.m. yesterday as people joined in the EU-wide three minutes of silence in remembrance of those killed in the US.
In Belfast thousands gathered in front of the City Hall for an act of mourning led by the Lord Mayor, Mr Jim Rodgers, the US Consul General, Ms Barbara Stephenson, and representatives of the four main churches.
Other main services took place in Derry and Armagh.
Clergy representing the four churches prayed "for a world suddenly so small that the events in it touch and affect us all. And though we scarcely know how to do it, we pray that those who planned and carried out such an attack will see the evil of their ways. Before God and our common humanity may they come to see how such violence serves no cause."
Next Tuesday at 1 p.m. the people of Enniskillen will mark the US terrorist attack with prayers at the site of their own tragedy. Church leaders from the area will lead the townspeople in prayer at the Cenotaph, site of the 1987 Remembrance Day bombing.