Bishops' pleas go unheeded by abducters

PLEAS from Anglican and Catholic bishops for the safe release of an abducted RUC constable went unheeded earlier this week when the IRA announced they had murdered their captive.
Bishop Cahaf Daly of Down and Connor joined with Bishop Francis Brooks of Dromore and Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Dromore, Dr Gordon McMullen, in appealing for the release of RUC Constable Louis Robinson, abducted near the border by the IRA last weekend as he returned with a group of Northern Ireland prison officers from an angling holiday in the Republic. But the pleas were ignored.
Bishop Daly's appeal for Constable Robinson came at the end of his speech welcoming Beirut kidnap victim Brian Keenan home to Belfast. "The release of Brian Keenan has brought to us a new realisation of the loathesomeness of the whole business of kidnapping hostages," Bishop Daly said.
Bishop Daly endorsed Mr Keenan's resolve "not to rest until his fellow hostages are released". The bishop remembered in particular the British and American hostages in Beirut, especially Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy and British journalist John McCarthy.
Brian Keenan is a person of whom the city Belfast can be proud, Bishop Daly said. "His homecoming is an occasion for rejoicing for both Protestant and Catholic communities in this sadly divided city of ours."