Best wishes to Peadar Heffron

www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0111/1224262053082.html

The CATHOLIC PSNI officer injured in a suspected dissident republican car bomb attack on Friday morning remained in a “critical” condition in hospital last night.

Peadar Heffron (33) is being treated in the intensive care unit of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.

Police have mounted a full-scale investigation to try to track the dissidents who planted the bomb under Mr Heffron’s car but up to last night there were no arrests.

Mr Heffron, an Irish language enthusiast and captain of the PSNI Gaelic football team, was badly injured when the bomb exploded under his Alfa Romeo car in Randalstown, Co Antrim, at about 6.30am on Friday.

Recently married, Mr Heffron is understood to have been driving to work in west Belfast when the attack happened.

Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams yesterday joined in the condemnation of the attack. “We have made it very clear that there is no place in society for these actions,” he said. “They are entirely self-serving. The goodwill of Sinn Féin goes to that young officer and his family. We need to ensure that there is no room in terms of the turbulence at the moment for these people to exploit it.”

The explosion is the latest in a series of attacks by dissidents and virtually identical to one close to the PSNI headquarters in Belfast in October in which an officer’s girlfriend narrowly escaped death.

Mr Heffron has served with the police for nine years and was among officers who attended the first meeting where discussions in Derry between Policing Board officials and members of the public were conducted in Irish.

Det Chief Supt Derek Williamson urged people in the area to come forward if they noticed anything suspicious.

terrible thing to happen. is he from Kerry? hope he pulls through and makes a full recovery.

May I add my good wishes to him and his family. I have played against PSNI in other sporting events and have respect for them as individuals.

The pereptrators of this and all similar outrages are the enemy of us all. Thankfully they are a small minority and garner no support from right thinking people.

Peadar is due to be released from hospital soon (or might have been already) but sentiments against Catholics in the PSNI seem to rage on.
Personally, I think that if there's ever going to be a lasting peace all communites should somehow get involved in the polcie. One can go on and on about police brutality but men like Peadar try to change just that.
The PSNI playing a team from the NY police, London met and a Garda team was a nice step forward I think but some obviously see all these guys as targets.

Catholics who join devolved PSNI 'in line of fire' says Republican Sinn Fein
Young Catholic recruits to the Police Service of Northern Ireland are "putting themselves in the line of fire," Republican Sinn Fein has warned.

Des Dalton, the recently elected president of the anti-peace-process organisation, told the Observer yesterday that the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Stormont Assembly would make no difference to groups such as the CIRA, Real IRA and Oglaigh na hEireann in their campaigns of violence.

Dalton said the devolution of policing "had only re-arranged the furniture"; the house remained in Britain.

"The Royal Irish Constabulary became the Royal Ulster Constabulary and they ultimately became the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the PSNI. But while the cap badge might change, the essential point of these forces remain the same. They are there to uphold British rule, they are integral part of the British state forces," Dalton said. "So it is worth remembering all the recent reports of Catholic PSNI officers being unable to live in the communities they came from.

"Our message to young nationalists is that your place is not there in the PSNI. The logic of the situation remains the same – if you join a force that upholds British rule then you are putting yourself in the line of fire."

Last month the Real IRA set off a booby-trap bomb underneath the car of PSNI Constable Peadar Heffron. The prominent Irish-speaking policeman who was captain of the PSNI's gaelic football team, lost a leg in the blast and suffered serious internal injuries. Constable Heffron is the cousin of Sinn Fein's national chairman, Declan Kearney.