LOYALIST sources have indicated that the IRA gun attack in Derry will place the loyalist ceasefire, under increasing pressure. A senior loyalist source said it would be difficult to restrain militants.
"The IRA is taking us to the brink but then the Provos have always played brinkmanship," the source said.
The Progressive Unionist Party leader, Mr David Ervine, said: "There has been a lot of hype about the possibility of another IRA ceasefire. What we are witnessing seems to show that the IRA has exactly the opposite intention.
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said: "This latest incident is a matter of regret. It underlines the need for a credible peace process which will lead us out of conflict and into negotiations. Sinn Fein seeks to end all armed actions."
A republican source accused other political leaders of hypocrisy. "A young Catholic man was shot in north Belfast on Wednesday. There wasn't all this fuss about him."
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume said: "Anyone who kills or attempts to kill another human being cannot claim to be working for justice or equality or looking for civil rights for other people."
The former SDLP chairman, Mr Mark Durkan, said Sinn Fein, had to address the fact that violence undermined confidence in its stated commitment to peace.
The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, said the attack showed the IRA had no interest in peace. He said the shooting showed, that any future "manoeuvre" would not represent a change of heart by republicans.
The Ulster Unionist security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, said he believed the IRA may yet call a ceasefire to appeal to the floating nationalist vote.
The DUP security spokesman, Mr Gregory Campbell, said: "The IRA have declared war on the people of Northern Ireland."
For Alliance, Ms Eileen Bell said: "Their (Sinn Fein's) grasp of democracy remains as weak as it ever was."
The President of the Methodist Church, the Rev Kenneth Best, said: "I am bewildered as To what any intelligent organisation believes can be achieved by this brutality."