Simon Coveney resumes Belfast speech disrupted by hoax bomb

An Irish government minister forced to evacuate from a peace-building event in Belfast following a bomb threat has returned to complete his speech.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney branded the security alert in March, a "futile and cowardly exercise".

Mr Coveney had been speaking at an event organised by the John and Pat Hume Foundation.

The Houben Centre on the Crumlin Road was evacuated and a funeral service at nearby Holy Cross church was disrupted.

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

A controlled explosion was carried out and police later declared the security alert a hoax.

Mr Coveney returned to the Houben Centre on Wednesday to speak at the rescheduled event.

The Fine Gael politician said he was "genuinely sorry" his previous visit ended the way it did.

"That was a futile, cowardly exercise in community control," he said.

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

"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."

The event had been organised by the John and Pat Hume Foundation, which was established in honour of the Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume and his wife.

The Houben Centre is located at the interface of the Ardoyne and Shankill - it operates as a cross-community centre and also the parish centre for the Holy Cross church.

Mr Coveney noted the theme of the event was "building common ground".

"It is the opposite to what we experienced the last time we met," he said.

"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 added.

"Your communities need a political voice and you stifle it. Your communities deserve a safe environment to raise their families supported by effective policing - your actions undermine their safety, their wellbeing and their future."