Words are hardly adequate to condemn the bombing at Canary Wharf which has once more caused the world's television screens to fill with images of innocent people injured and mutilated in the name of Irish nationalism. The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, spoke for all but a tiny minority of Irishmen and women in his swift statement of condemnation and in extending sympathy to the injured.
And it is difficult to overstate the shock and sorrow with which ordinary people watched the unfolding details of the outrage. The appurtenances of terror - the anonymous call, the self-exculpating statement, the coded name - had been very largely banished from the public mind. At one blow, the normality of peace has been undone and replaced once again by the fear of random violence.
It is not just the general public which has been caught off guard. Clearly, the security forces did not anticipate an attack at this time. And the shock to elected representatives both in Ireland and in Britain has been palpable. Neither administration seems to have been expecting a breakdown in the IRA ceasefire at this time. So much for the two governments' antennae.
But neither, it appears, was the leadership of Sinn Fein anticipating this. Late last night the best information suggested that Mr Gerry Adams and his senior lieutenants in the party were still endeavouring to come to grips with the situation. There remains the possibility that the attack may have been carried out by a splinter group of the IRA, acting without the agreement of its Army Council. More likely and more ominously, it was being suggested that the IRA has gone its own way, distancing itself from the political leadership of Sinn Fein. If either of these turns out to be so, apart from further attacks on the innocent and the uninvolved, there is also the possibility of a deepening split between the republican factions, with the hawks in the ascendant.
Some elements of hope may yet repose in this tragic turn of events if indeed it emerges that this has been a one off, albeit sanctioned by those who command the IRA. Neither government must over react or respond too quickly; certainly there will be no drastic counter measures until the fullest details have emerged as to the authorship of last evening's atrocity and the attitudes of the relevant parties as to what it presages. At this writing, the two governments and the main opposition spokespersons in both parliaments have been studied and careful in what they have chosen to say. . .
This is not the moment for recriminations over the regrettably slow pace of the political process. No foot dragging by Mr Major's government nor any lack of responsiveness by the unionists can justify a return to violence such as we have witnessed at Canary Wharf. A great deal has been achieved over the past 18 months and the genuine peacemakers - in Ireland, in Britain and across the Atlantic - have not slackened in their resolve to bring this process through to a final and agreed settlement. If there remains a chance to put it back on course, those peacemakers must not now play into the hands of the extremists. This is a time for cool heads, for continuing commitment, for wisdom and for courage.