The shooting of senior PSNI officer Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell in Omagh on Wednesday evening has led to a speedy and united response of condemnation from politicians North and South. It was an event with terrible echoes of the Troubles not just in its callous and brutal character – an attempted assassination of a man in front on his child at a leisure centre after football training – but in its random nature. That was almost certainly the intention. That politicians on all sides say they will not countenance a return to the dark days of the past is welcome. Indeed, it is essential.
The PSNI has said its investigations are focusing on dissident republicans, particularly the so-called New IRA. Dissident republicans believe they are continuing an armed struggle in which PSNI members are somehow “legitimate targets.” That this mindset has survived all that has happened in the run up to and implementation of the Belfast Agreement is truly dreadful, but survive it has, at least among a small group who reject the historic settlement which the agreement represented.
Police work on both sides of the Border will, we must hope, ensure that those who are responsible face justice. Indeed, PSNI action to try to disrupt the activity of dissident groups may well be part of the motivation for the attack. Nor must those who carried out and planned this act find any support south of the Border – and, beyond a small number of supporters, it is surely unlikely that they will.
The North’s politicians, and the Irish and British governments, also need to reflect. The dispute on the Northern Ireland protocol has left politics in a kind of stasis, with no immediate sign that the institutions can be revived, even if the UK and EU reach a deal on its implementation. The high stakes at play are underlined by this week’s events.
‘If you don’t swipe in, you won’t be promoted.’ Remote working is still a battleground
Beyond Conor McGregor: How MMA in Ireland is able to stand its ground
Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+: 10 of the best new shows to watch in September
Michael Walker: Proof in the pudding suggests Declan Rice made correct decision
The two things are not directly linked – the responsibility for this appalling crime rests with those who ordered it, planned it, pulled the trigger and helped the perpetrators afterwards. The shooting has no justification whatsoever, no matter what else is going on in politics and society. But we must recognise, too, that the lack of political progress leaves a vacuum. And in a divided society like Northern Ireland, where the extremists still loiter on the fringes of politics, this can be dangerous. It creates uncertainty about the future direction of politics and these malign forces can try to take advantage of this.
Since the establishment of Stormont in 1998, Northern Ireland has been without a functioning government for over a third of that time. A successful power-sharing administration that advances the interests of all the people of Northern Ireland will not convince the extremists of anything. But it will show them, and everyone else, that their murderous inclinations are futile.