“There cannot be peace without justice and there cannot be justice without an effective and clear system of laws and regulations” said the Primate of Ireland, Archbishop Séan Brady, in intervening at a public meeting of the Northern Ireland Policing Board (the watchdog that monitors public order in Ulster), held in the city of Armagh. The archbishop expressed his appreciation for the work of the Policing Board “at the service of the whole community” and deplored “the intimidations to which it has often been subjected in recent times”. Referring to the third anniversary of the foundation of the Police Service of Northern Ireland and of the Policing Board, Archbishop Brady noted “real progress in the last three years”: “I am convinced that further progress can be achieved if the whole community assumes responsibility for the future success of the maintenance of public order. There cannot be peace without justice he stressed and there cannot be justice without an effective and clear system of rules and regulations. This system is at the service of the whole community and in the best interest of the community”. That’s why the archbishop renewed his appeal to Catholics to “work together with others and to assume their own role in the construction of a just and honourable future”: “Everyone he concluded ought utterly to reject those who try to stop the progress of society through violence, intimidation and criminality”.
