Community leaders and residents in Irvinestown were yesterday coming to terms with Sunday night's hotel bomb blast. Mr Joe Mahon, owner of the hotel damaged in the attack, spoke of his bewilderment that the town should be targeted by the latest strain of militant republicanism.
The hotel was to host an RUC Community Forum meeting yesterday evening. A caller to a local newspaper using the same codeword delivered with the bomb warning on Sunday night, claimed the attack was mounted by the Fermanagh brigade of the Continuity IRA. In the statement to the Impartial Reporter, the caller warned that hotels or other businesses that facilitated meetings with the RUC would be targeted. In a clear reference to Sinn Fein's calls for dissident republican groups to disband, the caller said the Continuity IRA would continue its campaign "regardless of how British rule in the six occupied counties is remodelled".
"Finally, we wish to state that we treat calls for our disbandment from those nauseating hypocrites in the same contemptuous manner in which their British paymasters have treated their calls for the disbandment of the RUC," the caller added. North Fermanagh's sole Sinn Fein councillor, Mrs Geraldine Cassidy, lives near Mahon's Hotel. When she heard the bomb explode she assumed the nearby RUC station had come under attack. "I couldn't believe it was Mahon's. After all, it's a family-run hotel which employs people from both sides. I would totally condemn these mindless thugs who are obviously trying to exploit difficulties in the peace process," she said. Eireann. Mr Mahon is treasurer of the local GAA club and comes from one of Fermanagh's oldest Catholic business families. He points out that his clients come from both sides of the community in almost equal measure.
"Even at the height of Drumcree you had bands from both sides leading the festival here. This is a quiet town, a very mixed town. I think the people who did this are just a pack of cowards picking on an easy target," he said.
Considerable damage was caused to the hotel when the device ignited a 500-gallon oil tank in the adjoining car-park, although Mr Mahon hoped to be back in business some time today.
His main concern, he said, was the safety of his customers.
A Church of Ireland minister, the Rev Raymond Thompson, was conducting an evening service at Derryvullan North parish church when he heard the explosion. "The whole community is shocked and alarmed that something like this should happen in Irvinestown," he said.
Fermanagh-South Tyrone MP Mr Ken Maginnis said he wasn't surprised by the timing of the attack, claiming it supported his contention that now was not the time to relax security along the Border.
However, the unionist security spokesman admitted he was surprised at the Continuity IRA's choice of target, and he believed the attack was the work of "outsiders" possibly based in Donegal or Leitrim. "It is ironic that this has been visited on a place like Irvinestown, where people have always worked so well together. These unmandated outsiders won't be allowed to inflict their will on this community," he added.
Also in Irvinestown was the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, who said the incident was an "appalling act" carried out by people who refused to accept the will of the Irish people. A local SDLP Assembly member, Mr Tommy Gallagher, said the attack came as a "big shock".