Police continue search for bomb site

A security alert on a County Fermanagh estate where Lord Brookeborough lives is expected to continue for several days.

Police are investigating reports that a loud bang was heard at Colebrook near Brookeborough in the early hours of Wednesday.

Alan Brookeborough is one of the most decent, one of the most fair people that I have ever worked with

Denis Bradley
Policing Board

Despite an extensive search of the 1,000 acre estate, police said they had not yet found the seat of an explosion.

Lord Brookeborough is an elected unionist hereditary peer who sits as an independent or "cross bencher".

He also sits on the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

Local newspaper

Deputy chairman of the Policing Board Denis Bradley said it was "an annoying and totally unnecessary development".

"Alan Brookeborough is my colleague and he is a friend of mine," he said.

"Anybody who thinks that by putting a device anywhere near that area or around him and threatening his stand or politics is going to achieve any change or make any difference in this Ireland we all live in is absolutely so far off the mark that they are making themselves irrelevant.

"Alan Brookeborough is one of the most decent, one of the most fair people that I have ever worked with."

The leader of the House of Lords, Lord Williams, told peers on Wednesday of an attack "with explosives" on the property of Lord Brookeborough.

A caller to a local newspaper said the Continuity IRA had detonated a bomb in the area.

The Continuity IRA is opposed to the Northern Ireland peace process and has carried out several attacks in the Fermanagh area since 1996.