New IRA blamed for Londonderry car bomb

A suspected New IRA car bomb that exploded outside a courthouse in Londonderry on Saturday has prompted widespread condemnation and fears it could be a prelude to renewed violence in Northern Ireland after Brexit.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) claim at least two armed men hijacked a pizza delivery car and installed a bomb inside, which was then driven to the location before it was detonated.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that, “a bomb warning phone call was made to the West Midlands Samaritans who then informed West Midlands Police who in turn passed the information to the PSNI.”

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The PSNI managed to evacuate the surrounding area within 30 minutes of the car being left outside the court house. No one is believed to have been injured in the attack.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton confirmed that two men in their twenties had been arrested in connection with the bombing. He told reporters: “For this investigation, our main line of inquiry is against the ‘New IRA’. The New IRA like most dissident Republican groups in Northern Ireland are small, largely unrepresentative and just determined to drive people back to somewhere they don't want to be.”

The New IRA was formed in 2012 after a number of dissident republican groups said they were unifying under one leadership.

The attack was condemned by policians from across the political spectrum. Gary Middleton, the Democratic Unionist Party former deputy mayor of Londonderry, described the incident as a “disgraceful act of terrorism” and “a throwback to the past”.

Sinn Fein, the former political wing of the nationalist Irish Republican Army, also condemned the bombing, with MP Elisha McCallion saying it had “has shocked the local community.”

CNN’s international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, tweeted the explosion was a “level of violence unseen here in years”.

CNN reports that “the bombing raised fears that sectarian violence might be revived in Northern Ireland, which has been split over the question of whether to remain part of the United Kingdom or become part of Ireland”.

The Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998 ended nearly 30 years of conflict between protestant loyalists and catholic republicans, in which more than 3,500 people died.

Since then the country has made huge strides towards reconciliation, yet there are growing fears the return of a hard border between north and south after Brexit could see renewed violence. Police in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic have warned that a return to a hard border, complete with customs and other checks, could be a target for militant groups.

Reuters reports that the New IRA, which is one of a small number of militant groups opposed to the Good Friday peace agreement, has carried out “sporadic attacks in recent years”. The last was back in 2016 when a prison officer was killed after a bomb exploded under his van in Belfast.

Last July, tensions flared again when police and fire officers came under petrol bomb and missile attack for a number of nights from Catholic youths in the Bogside area of Londonderry.