Simon Coveney returns to finish speech at Belfast peace event evacuated by alert

The Irish foreign affairs minister has returned to Belfast to finish a speech that was interrupted by a security alert earlier this year.

Simon Coveney was forced to evacuate from a peace-building event in the city in March due to a bomb scare.

He returned to the Houben Centre on the Crumlin Road on Wednesday morning to complete his address at the rescheduled event.

"Hello, again," said Mr Coveney. "Thank you for coming back.

"I didn't get a chance to say it in person when we last met but I do want to say that I'm genuinely sorry that my presence here on the last occasion at the Houben Centre ended the way that it did."

The event, organised by the John and Pat Hume Foundation, was evacuated and a funeral service at nearby Holy Cross church were disrupted by the alert.

An electrician had been earlier hijacked at gunpoint and told to drive what he believed to be a live bomb to the centre in his van.

The item turned out to be a hoax bomb.

Speaking on Wednesday, Simon Coveney delivered a defiant message to the loyalist paramilitaries believed to be behind the scare.

"It serves no-one, no good purpose, except to drag the reputation of this decent community backwards to darker days," he said.

"The only outcomes - a man living with the trauma of being forced to drive what he thought was a bomb and a grieving family forced to pray for their loved ones on the roadside and in a car park, instead of the sanctity of a church."

Mr Coveney added: "For God's sake, in this day and age we should be beyond having to call out paramilitarism and its role in society in Northern Ireland.

"To the groups who cling on to the use of violence as a means of controlling and threatening their own communities and those who encourage them, I say this very directly - your communities need uplift and investment and you scare that away."

He noted that the theme of the John and Pat Hume Foundation event was "building common ground", and said that's "the opposite to what we experienced the last time we met".

Mr Coveney went on: "Take a look at the children in your community and ask yourself if you want them to turn out like you.

"Every positive, progressive aspiration held by your community for a better future, you are holding it back."

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