The angry south, the weary north: Irish people voice their feelings on the horrors of the IRA's Warrington bombs and the loyalist shootings of Catholics

'THE IRA did not kill Johnathan Ball in my name or in your name. I want to tell the world tonight they did not kill him in the name of Ireland. There's nothing wrong with being emotional about a little baby's death. I feel horror, revulsion and sadness. But that's not enough. Tonight I feel anger.

'I feel angry and frustrated because the political will is not there to end the violence. We've listened too long to rhetoric with no results. Sincere people will say everything has been tried. Maybe it's time it was looked at from a different angle. Maybe it's time we asked for UN troops and independent arbitrators from Europe or the outside world.'

Susan McHugh, Irish mother who organised last week's rally against the IRA and today's peace rally in Dublin.

'The woman leading the peace moves in Dublin is very sincere and deserves the height of praise. The sympathy for the Warrington parents is very good and warming and I share it. But this could all have an adverse effect. The politics of the last atrocity is a very bad basis for a peace movement. Next week there could be Catholic children burnt in their beds in Belfast . . . Will there be flowers for them? There have been so many children killed here, wtih plastic bullets and so on, and nobody in Dublin sent flowers. You must have parity of protest, parity of sympathy, parity of compassion. We could have done with some of that sympathy. You can't have a partial peace movement.'

Fr Denis Faul, Tyrone priest and IRA critic.

'It's been a black week and one would hope that we won't see a repetition of that for a long, long time, and hopefully never again.

'We have said that so often in the past, but we want to keep trying. We have to try and get people to realise that the end result of violence begets more violence, and that is not the way forward.'

'We are ready to sit at the table, any time, any day and go anywhere to have peace talks with anybody. Everybody must come to the table with an open mind and no pre-conditions.'

Albert Reynolds, Ireland's Prime Minister.

'The Warrington outrage besmirches the whole Irish people and leaves us all feeling ashamed and somewhat helpless. It is time the slaughter of the innocents . . . really provoked the people of this Republic - and particularly the government - into more than the by now ritual condemnation of such awful acts.'

Des O'Malley, leader of Ireland's Progressive Democrats.

'The first thing I thought of doing was moving out of here, but after seeing all the people and support you've got here, it's just incredible really. There's that many good people here in Northern Ireland, it's a pity we couldn't do something.'

Joe Dalrymple, whose father Gerry was killed by loyalists last Thursday.

'The only soldiers who can act in my name are the peace-keepers we send to the Lebanon. Anyone else is a murderer as far as I am concerned.'

Anonymous woman, signing book of condolence in Dublin.

'There are many families in Cork, and elsewhere in the Republic, who are proud to boast that their grandfathers and great-grandfathers were involved in the war of independence. The overwhelming majority - almost 99 per cent as recorded in the election polls - deplore and abominate the latter-day terrorists who have denigrated the name of the Irish Republican Army.'

Editorial, the 'Cork Examiner'.

'The reason I am here is our hearts are broken over all this. I have six children from 18 down to six years old.'

John May, TV repair electrician from Tallaght, south-west Dublin, adding to piles of flowers at St Stephen's Green.

'I just think it's a disgrace that these people are saying that they are doing it in our name. They never did it for me.'

Andrew O'Neill, father of two young children from Celbridge, Co Kildare, at St Stephen's Green.

'It will not make much difference in Northern Ireland, I don't think. In a sense the outrage at the children being killed only reminds us here of the number of our children that have been killed, with no outrage in England for them.

'I know it sounds hardhearted, but we have had more outrages than people can remember or even count . . . We have a surfeit of killing - you either topple over with emotion or you block out. Generally we block it out . . . What's happening in Dublin is the distancing of southern Ireland from Northern Ireland . . . They almost view all of us in Northern Ireland now as savages, uncivilised. They don't react to deaths here now. They feel that England doesn't deserve it - but in a sense they feel that we deserve it.'

Senior Catholic community worker in Northern Ireland.

'This attack should produce the same degree of outrage among the Irish people as if the bomb had exploded in Grafton Street (in central Dublin). The Provos claim to act in the name of the Irish people, and the Irish people, North and South, must now take a stronger stand against this monster in our midst. The Provos, in their military and political forms, must be challenged and confronted at every opportunity - in the workplace, in the trade union movement, in resident and tenant associations, on local authorities, in the pubs, in the shops and on the streets.'

Proinssias De Rossa, a Republican internee 30 years ago in the Irish Republic, who now leads the Democratic Left party in the Dail.

'War is war and these things are going to happen in war.'

Anonymous caller, to Irish radio phone-in.

'We are so, so sorry.'

Message attached to a teddy bear at St Stephen's Green.

'Such actions by the IRA are utterly inhuman and barbaric. They are totally incompatible with the teaching of the Catholic Church and are to be unreservedly condemned. We know our revulsion is shared by the overwhelming majority of people in Ireland, as well as Britain, who bear no responsibility for such outrageous acts perpetrated by a very small faction.

'We appeal for an end to all such violence and pray for peace in Ireland.'

Joint statement by Roman Catholic Primate of all Ireland Cathal Daly and Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster.

'We've had atrocities at regular intervals for 20 years, the files are full of them. We used to think that they would turn things round, bring people to their senses, but of course it doesn't change the thinking of the terrorists.

'The IRA will of course suffer a short-term drop in support, but the loyalist shootings will go a long way to restore them, I should have thought.

'I can remember 20 years ago a doctor whose daughter was killed in a bombing making a statement saying he hoped some good would come of his daughter's death. The horrible reality is that these deaths are wasted, a complete waste of human lives.'

Protestant QC in Northern Ireland.

'The Provos I meet are deeply embarrassed by Warrington, they clearly wish it hadn't happened and they don't want to talk about it.

'In the south there has been a growing feeling that they wish the north would float off into the North Sea and sink. It's a mixture of feelings: partly guilt, that this is being done in their name; a fear that it might spread to the south; a general wish to be rid of the thing.

'They more and more resent the part the north plays in the politics of Ireland. They want to concentrate on the economic issues, and the north seems more and more of a foreign problem, extraneous to them.'

Catholic schoolteacher, West Belfast.

(Photographs omitted)