Manchester's Agony

No words can describe the sheer horror engulfing the great city of Manchester and the innocents whose lives have been ended by the murderous act of an individual now seemingly an actor in an orchestrated plot of a hidden group in the northwest. Having served in the Army in Northern Ireland at a time when violence was being waged on a daily basis with bombs, bullets and explosives aimed at the security forces and both sides of a hard sectarian divide - the lasting impact on communities is incalculable.

That this calculated hatefilled obscenity taking place amid a concert with such a youthful audience and their families is ever more heartbreaking for all of us, wherever we live. The daily toll of human misery unfolding on the news and throughout the media brings the immediacy of the Manchester Arena to all of us.