Editorial: Terrorists trying to destroy peace

Thursday, Aug. 20, 1998 | 11:05 a.m.

THE scene was wrenching.

Michael Monaghan held the hands of his surviving children as the coffins bearing his wife and 18-month-old daughter were carried to their final resting place in a church in Augher, Northern Ireland. They were just two of the victims from the worst bombing in Northern Ireland's history, which killed 28 people, mostly women and children.

A splinter group calling itself the "Real IRA," which has been trying to derail the Irish Republican Army's ceasefire of July 1997, took responsibility for the attack but said it will now suspend its bombings of Northern Ireland towns. Surely that hollow gesture will bring little consolation to Monaghan, his children, and all the other families who lost loved ones.

Terror is nothing new to Northern Ireland, nor to the rest of the world. No longer limited to Northern Ireland, the Middle East and other regions, it even has infected the shores of the United States. Most recently, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed, killing 257 people and wounding more than 550.

Despite the upward spiraling trend of terrorism, bitter foes in Northern Ireland were able to reach a peace agreement in April. Soon after the historic accord was signed, though, splinter groups set off on a campaign of terror and have been trying to kill peace prospects. The level of hatred has horrified even those hardened by years of tragedy.

It's hard for most Americans to comprehend the continuing terror that Ireland, Northern Ireland and Britain have endured this century from the "Troubles." But as a new century nears, it's hoped that proponents of peace redouble their resolve.

Continuing on their current path -- and not resigning themselves to a belief that peace cannot be achieved -- can only advance the cause of peace in other parts of the world torn apart by strife and centuries-old conflicts.