Page last updated at 18:39 GMT, Monday, 9 March 2009

Antrim shooting: Reaction

Two military personnel have been shot dead by gunmen at the Massereene army barracks in Antrim. Four other people - two military and two civilian - have been wounded.

NORTHERN IRELAND SECRETARY SHAUN WOODWARD

Shaun Woodward

This is a big challenge for everybody in this community in Northern Ireland. People out there, a neighbour, maybe somebody living in a house with the same person will know something and this is really a moment when we have to decide how we really secure our future.

People have to decide whether they're going to come forward, because if people come forward there's no question the police will succeed, there will be prosecutions and people will go to jail for a very long time.

SINN FEIN PRESIDENT GERRY ADAMS

Gerry Adams

I think what happened was an attack on the peace process. It was wrong. It was counter-productive.

My thoughts are with the families of the two men who were killed and who were injured. And you might take some succour from the fact that whoever was involved, they have no support, and no strategy, and no popular will to back up their actions.

DUP MINISTER JEFFREY DONALDSON

Jeffrey Donaldson

There are people out there in the republican community who know who did this.

There are people who know who was involved and it's important that Sinn Fein make absolutely clear that it is the right thing to do for those people to give that information to the police so that these terrorists can be apprehended and Martin McGuinness has done that, it's important that Sinn Fein keep pressing that with the republican constituency.

UUP LEADER SIR REG EMPEY

Sir Reg Empey

Why can't these so-called dissidents accept the democratically expressed views of people, parties and governments on both sides of the UK/RoI Border and allow us to build peace and new opportunities? We must not allow a miniscule terrorist faction to set a new and utterly ruthless agenda.

SDLP LEADER MARK DURKAN

Mark Durkan

In this day and age the presence of Massereene barracks is not an affront to Irish people but Saturday night's murderous assault most certainly was.

Those responsible are steeped in the mindset and means of the past; they must not be allowed to take us back there. They must not be allowed to achieve their endgame which is to subvert democratic aims and subvert the new beginning to policing.

ALLIANCE LEADER DAVID FORD

David Ford

My thoughts are with victims and their loved ones at this time of shock and deep sadness. This attack highlights the real need for an intelligence-based approach to tackling the threat of terrorism.

These individuals need to be caught as quickly as possible. Northern Ireland cannot and must not be pushed back towards the precipice.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PRESIDENT HANS-GERT POTTERING

European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering

The murderers who carried out this attack are seeking to sweep away democracy and normal life from the streets of Northern Ireland.

Our full solidarity is with the people there, and with the security forces in their efforts to bring these murderers to justice.

FORMER FIRST MINISTER IAN PAISLEY

Ian Paisley

Good will come out of this evil and we will see progress towards an absolute peace in our province, rather than a retrograde step back to trouble and murder.

RICHARD E NEAL US FRIENDS OF IRELAND

Those responsible for the reprehensible attack should understand that they have no support on the island of Ireland, in the United States of America or across the globe.

Their actions will not change the enormous progress that has been made in Northern Ireland in recent times, nor will it stop the inevitable transformation of that society.



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