Peter Robinson will become the first leader of Northern Ireland’s largest Protestant party to attend a Roman Catholic Mass today at the funeral of murdered police constable Ronan Kerr.
In a move which highlights the dramatic change in attitudes since the Good Friday agreement, Mr Robinson said yesterday that he had made a “personal decision” to pay his respects to the 25-year-old who was killed in a car bomb on Saturday.
The First Minister and leader of the Democratic Unionist Party has not previously attended Mass although he has been inside a Catholic chapel.
Such a move would have been unthinkable only a matter of years ago. His predecessor, the Rev Ian Paisley, denounced Pope John Paul II as the “Antichrist” and vowed never to set foot in a Catholic church.
Mr Robinson said: “I want to pay my respects to the memory of Ronan and the task that he performed. I think it’s right that as First Minister I should do that and I have no apologies. I will have my critics, but it is a personal decision I have taken.” It highlights how the murder has increased determination to reject attempts to stir up Northern Ireland’s old divisions.
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In a further sign of cross-party unity, Martin McGuinness, the Deputy First Minister, will represent Sinn Féin.
Enda Kenny, the Irish premier, and Cardinal Sean Brady, leader of Catholics in Ireland, will also attend the service at PC Kerr’s hometown of Beragh, just outside Omagh in County Tyrone. Hundreds of other mourners are expected.
PC Kerr was one of a wave of recruits to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and his murder is the latest in a series of attacks aimed at intimidating them from joining.
As his mother, Nuala, prepared for the funeral she was supported by Kate Carroll, the widow of the first PSNI officer to be murdered.
Mrs Carroll, whose husband Stephen was shot dead in March 2009, has sent personal messages of support to Mrs Kerr and spoke to other members of the family yesterday.
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She told The Times: “It’s an absolutely senseless death, absolutely pointless.” Crimestoppers, the charity, offered a reward of £50,000 for information that could lead to the arrest of those responsible for the car bomb booby trap which claimed PC Kerr’s life outside his home on the edge of Omagh.
No group has yet claimed responsibility and there were reports yesterday that a new dissident group of disgruntled republicans, recently defected from the mainstream IRA, may be behind the atrocity.
There was widespread condemnation of graffiti, daubed on walls in Londonderry, praising the murder and threatening further attacks.
A series of security alerts have occurred across the country since the weekend, with the majority involving reports of suspicious packages.
While all have been dismissed by the PSNI as “elaborate hoaxes”, the tactic is often used by Republican dissidents to create disruption.
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The authorities are concerned about an escalation in violence in the leadup to the Assembly elections on May 5, which coincide with the 30th anniversary of the death of Bobby Sands.
Detectives have appealed for information on all visitors to the Highfield estate, where PC Kerr lived, from teatime on Thursday to Saturday afternoon when the bomb exploded. It weighed almost a pound and was likely to have been triggered when PC Kerr started his ignition or sat on his seat.
Mrs Kerr made an emotional appeal on Sunday night to other young Catholics, urging them not to be deterred from joining the police force.