Shooting of police officer in NI

[Chickenkeev]

I've been listening to news of this all morning on the radio (rte). I was horrified to hear about it and that police are working mainly on the theory that dissident republicans are responsible. I was quite surprised (stunned if I'm honest) that it doesn't seemed to have appeared on any threads on MN, that I can see anyway. Surely it's of national importance to the UK as well as here?

I just came on Mumsnet to read what English people thought (I perceive MN to be mainly English or GB based people).......and it appears that they don't think anything about it?

It's been the main topic on radio here (NI) all day, although there's not really much to say tbf......

I'm in Scotland and it's been on radio all day

Omagh woman here. Can't believe there isn't a thread about it. Sick to my stomach all day.

Top of the news on BBC. Cafog, I can't imagine what it must be like, dreading a resurgence of violence. No-one wants it (apart from a handful of arseholes).

3 men have been arrested.

It's horrendous. Honestly thought that this kind of thing was in the past. I was in the memorial garden in Omagh yesterday afternoon, and then to hear this a few hours later.

Absolutely dreadful. That poor man, I hope he pulls through. I can't imagine how traumatised his son is, and the others who witnessed it.
These scumbags have no support, glad the police seem to be making progress in the investigation.

devastating and terrifying

I think it is being played down here a bit because it is everyone's nightmare, since the calamity of Brexit

Poor man, praying hard for him

It's dreadful, I heard it on radio 4 tonight.

It's horrendous. Absolutely awful. Pure scumbags.

poor man and poor children who had to witness it.

who the f does shit like this?

I’m English, husband is northern Irish, and we live in Wales. It staggers me how little people ‘on the mainland’ know or think about the NI. This is yet another senseless killing, so sad.

The man is a hero - his first action ws to stagger to his feet and warn all the children around him to run away

Off topic sorry but the phrase ‘on the mainland’ is fingernails down on a blackboard - GB is not the mainland of Ireland! The shooting and how it happened is absolutely shocking and brazen, in front of all those children, it’s unusual in itself. If it is dissidents they’ve been ramping it up for some time, there was the attempted murder of police officers in strabane the other month. It seems so out of step with where nationalists and republicans are generally now but a friend of mine through her work had to visit dissidents in jail and she has said it is terrifying how committed they are, young men entirely committed to this.

It's been on Radio Scotland all day. Awful news, for him and his family but for all of NI. The news was suggesting that he knew he was a target but kept living his life anyway. Brave man. Obviously any PSNI officer is going to be more of a target than average but this guy in particular? I didn't know much about him.

Agree with others, many folk on the mainland haven't much of a clue what's going on. Security, Brexit, lack of functioning government. Awful really, this is part of our country.

No one wants a return to violence. This is evil.

I thought this kind of fucked up way of attitudes /revengeful attacks ect from Arseholes, who are hell bent on their wish of destabilising the N Ireland peace treaty process,
was a thing of past /consigned to history books,

Amagine how traumatic to be those youth boys who witnessed this

Glad to hear police have arrested them hopefully book will be thrown at them

Arseholes

So appalling. I heard a politician from the North today say, among other things, it was child abuse. That really resonated. So true. Utter depravity. The poor man and his poor poor son. And all those other terrified children who witnessed it. My heart goes out to them all.

He has been involved in a lot of high profile criminal investigations including non paramilitary organised crime. It’s not entirely certain if this was a dissident attack or a criminal hit.

The police will likely just have arrested known dissidents. I’d be highly surprised if they had already identified the actual suspects.

Who would do that job? They're so brave.

The phrase “life changing injuries” is being used on the news. The poor man, how horrific.

I'm a foreigner in England and I found it terrifying. All those children, those idiots didn't give a shit about. Just horrible.

I was sick to my stomach when I heard this last night. I hope he recovers but it sounds very grim indeed.
I feel there's so much violence and tension just bubbling all the time now that all it takes is a few lunatics to spend enough time together that it could all end in senseless deaths. It's not what the majority of us want and those who are continuing to arse a round and collect a Stormont salary whilst doing nothing but complain should take a good hard look at what they are actually doing.
Football matches for children, I mean god almighty, scum bags.

Masked gunmen. Pathetic, cowardly, stupid, bullying, criminal, drug dealing excuses for human beings. At least people from all sides of the political spectrum have condemned the attack.