THE beating to death of an off duty RUC man in Ballymena early yesterday drew widespread condemnation and revulsion last night throughout Ireland and Britain.
The condemnations were led by Dr Mo Mowlan, the Northern Secretary, the Chief Constable of the RUC, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, and the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton.
Constable Greg Taylor was beaten to death by a loyalist mob, members of which allegedly stamped on his head and prevented his friends from rescuing him. Earlier in the pub, Kelly's on Church Street, drinkers jeered the three and told Const Taylor to go and drink in Dunloy, the mainly Catholic village through which police had been preventing Orangemen marching for almost a year.
Dr Mowlam said: "Any death in circumstances like these must be utterly condemned and our thoughts at this minute are with the immediate family of the deceased."
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said it was an atrocious murder and that those responsible should be brought to justice. Describing the killing as a "dastardly deed", the Ulster Unionist MP and former Grand Master of the Orange Order, the Rev Martin Smyth, said: "I condemn it unreservedly at the same time sharing sympathy with the relatives of the dead police officer."
Mr Bruton said that sectarianism and triumphalism lay behind all the killings in Northern Ireland.
The outgoing moderator of the Presbyterian church, Dr Harry Allen, said he was deeply saddened that another life had been taken so brutally.
The Mayor of Ballymoney, Mr Frank Campbell, doubted the killing was linked to the Orange march ban in Dunloy. He said: "I've asked the RUC and they do not believe it was political. They think it was alcohol related and I would have to go along with that."
As police chiefs gathered at the RUC's 75th anniversary commemoration service at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast there was also passionate condemnation of the killing.
The Chief Constable of the RUC, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, paid tribute to the dead policeman and all other RUC officers who had been killed during the troubles.
"We take this opportunity to reflect ion our past and to think of those colleagues who down through the years have paid the ultimate price with their lives," he said.
Const Taylor had been killed "just because he was a police officer", Mr Flanagan said. And he led the congregation in a moment's silent tribute to all murdered police officers.
Mr Les Rodgers, chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, said: "I think this was a gang of cowardly people who set about a person out enjoying a drink while he was offduty. He was savagely cut down and beaten to death.
The UK Unionist MP Mr Robert McCartney said: "It reflects on the state of the society in which we live that on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the RUC that one of its members should be killed in this barbaric fashion."