THE attempt to kill police officers and soldiers at the border in Co Fermanagh is a sharp reminder that we live in uncertain and dangerous times.
Thankfully no-one was injured in the blast at Wattle Bridge near Newtownbutler when a bomb-disposal team was reviewing the area. PSNI officers were also in the vicinity, patrolling a security cordon.
This was a deliberate and cynical bid to murder and maim security forces who had gone to the scene at the weekend following reports of a suspect device.
It is believed a hoax device was found on Sunday night and it was during a follow-up operation on Monday morning that a bomb exploded.
Luring police into an ambush is a familiar tactic of dissident republican groups and was used only last month in Craigavon when a booby-trap bomb was left on Tullygally Road.
Deputy Chief Constable Stephen Martin, in a particularly forthright press conference on Monday, pointed out there have been five attempts to murder PSNI members this year, including the placing of a deadly device under an officer’s car parked at a Belfast golf club.
Clearly, the level of threat from the violent dissidents remains high and as Mr Martin made plain, police need more than condemnation from our politicians to tackle this issue.
He said we need a society led by our politicians to work collectively together, adding that in his view, matters are becoming more entrenched and progress is “slipping back a bit”.
This latest attack comes at a time when we are facing significant political uncertainty with deep concern over the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.
A leaked government report, ‘Operation Yellowhammer’, painted a decidedly bleak picture of what we could expect including shortages of food, fuel and medicines. It also suggests that avoiding a hard border in Ireland is likely to prove “unsustainable”.
It is profoundly worrying that those advocating leaving the EU come what may are paying so little attention to the potential repercussions in Northern Ireland.
As we saw yesterday, there are malign individuals committed to violence and instability who will try to exploit the political vacuum at Stormont and the chaos at Westminster.
They must not be allowed to succeed but we also must recognise that we neglect the hard won peace at our peril.
