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Two men arrested over Northern Ireland prison officer murder Two men arrested over Northern Ireland prison officer murder
(about 3 hours later)
Two men have been arrested in connection with the murder of the Northern Ireland prison officer David Black. The prominent dissident republican Colin Duffy is one of two men being questioned about the murder of a Northern Ireland prison officer as he commuted to work on Thursday.
The arrested men, aged 31 and 44, were detained in the Lurgan area in north Armagh early on Friday. The 44-year-old is understood to be the dissident republican Colin Duffy, who was acquitted by a judge in Belfast earlier this year of the murders of two soldiers outside Massereene military barracks in Antrim in March 2009. Duffy, 44, was arrested on Friday morning along with a 31-year-old man in the Lurgan area.
Gunmen travelling in a stolen car fired upon the 52-year-old's Audi car on the M1 motorway near a junction leading to Portadown as he was on his way to work at Maghaberry top security prison. Earlier this year Duffy was acquitted of charges relating to the murder of two soldiers outside Massereene army barracks in Antrim in 2009.
In a statement to the House of Commons on Friday, the Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, expressed her "profound sympathies" for the family and friends of the victim and praised the "untiring efforts" of police on both sides of the border. Both men were taken to the Police Service of Northern Ireland's (PSNI) serious crimes suite at Antrim police station.
The veteran prison officer David Black was ambushed and killed on the M1 motorway as he drove from his home in Cookstown towards Maghaberry top security prison where he worked.
The father of two was the first prison officer to be killed by paramilitaries in almost 20 years in the province. His family issued a statement pleading for no retaliation over the murder.
The PSNI has since confirmed that an armed anti-peace-process republican terror group was behind the drive-by shooting at the motorway junction close to Portadown.
Arriving at a meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council in nearby Armagh City on Friday, Ireland's premier, Enda Kenny, offered support to the security forces in Northern Ireland.
The taoiseach said any help the PSNI needed in the investigation would be "immediately forthcoming".
Kenny described the murder as a "very sad case" and pledged that the Garda Síochána would work closely with their PSNI colleagues in terms of "intelligence and information".
He added that those behind the Black murder, "those who planned it, who ordered it and carried it out" would be brought to justice.
Accompanying the taoiseach on his meetings with Northern Ireland's political leaders, the Irish deputy prime minister, Eamon Gilmore, said that what took place was "truly shocking".
Gilmore said the "appalling" attack on the prison officer had been condemned by every "right-thinking person on the island".
Earlier, in a statement to the House of Commons on Friday, the Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, expressed her "profound sympathies" for the family and friends of the victim and praised the "untiring efforts" of police on both sides of the border.
"This attack has demonstrated the gravity of the threat that dissident groups continue to pose," she said, adding that the government "will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that the terrorists do not succeed"."This attack has demonstrated the gravity of the threat that dissident groups continue to pose," she said, adding that the government "will continue to do everything in our power to ensure that the terrorists do not succeed".
She said that people from both communities in Northern Ireland were determined "there will be no return to the dark days of the past".She said that people from both communities in Northern Ireland were determined "there will be no return to the dark days of the past".
"Their response to this horrific crime has been clear, united and resolute," she said."Their response to this horrific crime has been clear, united and resolute," she said.
Black, a father of two, was the first prison officer to die at the hands of paramilitaries since 1993 and his death has sparked fears of retaliation. Last week the secretary of state reported that republican dissident attacks had fallen by 20%, although a Home Office threat assessment still put the level of danger these organisations pose as "severe".
However, his family appealed for no more violence in a statement issued through a clergyman in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, where the Black family live. A book of condolence in memory of the 52-year-old murdered prison officer was opened in a local arts centre in Cookstown.
Irish ministers and their counterparts in Northern Ireland are to discuss a response to the murder on Friday. The killing of Black will be top of the agenda at the north-south ministerial council in Armagh, which is only a few miles from the scene of Thursday's terror attack by republican dissidents. Meanwhile one of the IRA's most important prison leaders during the buildup to the 1998 Good Friday agreement is back in jail after being charged with offences connected to one of the most notorious murders during the peace process.
Finlay Spratt of the Prison Officers Association (POA) in the province said his members had stepped up their personal security over the past six months because of a heightened threat from dissident republicans. Padraic Wilson, 53, was the leader of IRA prisoners in the Maze prison in the late 1990s.
He also denied that the POA had claimed individual officers had been told they would lose access to personal protection weapons. He has been charged with IRA membership and addressing a meeting to encourage support for the IRA, which he denies.
In a message to the politicians gathering on Friday, Spratt added: "All I can say to the politicians is keep on working together … we should not let these dissidents disrupt Northern Ireland moving forward." Robert McCartney, 33, was stabbed to death outside Magennis's bar in Belfast. Local IRA members were blamed for the attack.
The head of the Northern Ireland Prison Service, Sue McAllister, also had to fend off allegations on a television station on Thursday night that personal protection weapons for prison officers were being taken away from them. A detective told Belfast magistrates court on Friday that although Wilson was not charged directly in connection with the murder of McCartney, the charges related to an internal investigation by the IRA following the murder.
"I have checked and to my knowledge no prison officer has been told that his or her personal protection weapon is to be withdrawn," she said. The magistrate said her concern was that Wilson could interfere with witnesses who include McCartney's sisters. Wilson was remanded in custody for four weeks.
"I will certainly be making sure that any prison officer who wishes to have a personal protection weapon will be able to apply to the police service as per our procedures." The murdered man's sisters launched an international campaign to bring his killers to justice, accusing the local IRA of helping to clean up all the forensic evidence from the bar and then intimidate witnesses.
Wilson was and remains a key supporter of Sinn Féin's peace strategy and after his release from jail for a time was the party's international affairs director. During his incarceration in the Maze prison he met the late Dr Mo Mowlam as part of delicate negotiations aimed at winning the IRA inmates' support for the Good Friday agreement.