PASSION, compassion, sadness and strong condemnation were among the reactions to the London bombing by the IRA expressed at a seminar of the National Association of Widows.
"We do not want to see the creation of any more widows or widowers, said Mrs Sheila Conroy, chairwoman of the Dublin branch.
"We know what a death in a family means. We know how it can tear a family apart. We utterly and unreservedly denounce the bombing in Canary Wharf ... Not one death, not the loss of any one person, can justify such outrageous conduct. We must stay calm and make sure that our contacts with women in the North remain intact."
The seminar, in Dublin on Saturday, was attended by 150 delegates from around the country. The subject was "Democracy - Is it meaningful in today's world?"
The Fianna Fail TD, Mr Tom Kitt, said he could see no justification for the bombing. It was depressing to see armed police and checkpoints on the streets of Belfast again.
However, he was encouraged by statements from loyalists such as Mr David Ervine and Mr Billy Hutchinson. He had become acquainted with them since the ceasefire. Without it, he would probably never have met them.
On the role of women in political life Mrs Eileen Proctor, president of the association, said it was up to women to send out the message that they would continue to cement the good relations they had been developing with women's groups in; the North. Women were a formidable force, she said.
It was up to women, who were largely peacemakers, to bring about a cessation of the Northern bloodshed. She believed women could be influential, "if they do not sleep with men of violence, if they do not serve them, if they ostracise them".