THE former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, said he had told Mr Gerry Adams this week to let the IRA know that he felt as let down as everybody else following the London bomb.

"I told him to tell them that I did not relish the idea of hearing on a foreign television station about a bomb blast which was politically stupid and totally and morally wrong", he added. "One cannot excuse the taking of human life, whatever the cost."

The former Taoiseach said that for people, particularly those with militant minds in the IRA, to regard the efforts and successes of Mr Adams and his colleagues as a failure was utter nonsense. "They have made remarkable progress in promoting the republican and nationalist cause."

He said the Sinn Fein leadership had brought the republican community in the North into the political mainstream for the first time. "They gave dignity to the communities they represented. Their achievement was recognised and respected throughout the world. They helped to forge a powerful political instrument for change"

Mr Reynolds said many spokespersons in the South, including himself, had frequently pointed out that if the peace process was not fed it would starve itself to death.

"Everybody got cosy in their own positions. They all thought the ceasefire would hold, not recognising the tensions that had existed for years between those who wanted to go the political route within the republican movement and those who wanted to carry on the physical force tradition."

Whatever those of the physical force tradition might think about the success of the operation last Friday, it had certainly played into the hands of those who gloated afterwards and said "We told you so".

The country was full of hindsight decision makers and cynics, but nobody should put any priority before the saving of human life, said Mr Reynolds.

There was a struggle for the soul of official unionism, which was why Mr David Trimble had been elected party leader, he added. "They wanted to win back what Dr Ian Paisley had won from them."