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The resignation of the governor of HMP Maghaberry has been described as a "blow to the Prison Service".

Steve Rodford was appointed governor five months ago in the wake of criticism of prison staff after the death of a prisoner on suicide watch.

Mr Rodford's home address and car registration details were found in the cell of a dissident republican inmate at the County Antrim jail.

NI Prisoner Ombudsman Pauline McCabe said the reform agenda had to go on.

"It is deeply regrettable that Steve Rodford is leaving Maghaberry Prison," she said.

"In my view he is an excellent governor who did everything he could to bring creative thinking and a fresh perspective to the challenging task of implementing the recommendations of the Pearson Report (into the death of prisoner Colin Bell).

"Very careful thought now needs to be given to Steve Rodford's replacement and to the management and support arrangements that will enable a new Governor to take forward the urgently needed programme of change."

Ulster Unionist MLA Basil McCrea said the review of how prisons were run "must continue".

"Although I wish to extend my best wishes to the governor, I must admit that his resignation is a huge blow to the Prison Service who are currently undergoing a review in relation to reform," he said.

"Indeed, he had only been in post for a very short period of time when he ordered the first major search of the jail in more than 10 years - a most welcome move."

"With the departure of Mr Rodford we need to ensure that the review of how our Prison Service is run and managed continues."


Mr Rodford had recently been staying in a hotel
It is understood he moved out of his County Down home a number of weeks ago and had been staying at a hotel.

BBC Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent Vincent Kearney said Mr Rodford's wife was clearly "very alarmed".

"She moved back to England a number of weeks ago and made it clear she no longer wanted to live in Northern Ireland," he said.

"He felt he had no option, other than to step down.

"There has been a general threat against prison officers from dissidents for some time now."

Mr Kearney said that Mr Rodford's decision to step down was not just connected to the security threat against him.

He said there had been suggestions that Mr Rodford felt he was not able to implement the changes he believes were necessary to reform the regime at the jail.

Mr Rodford was appointed after a series of damning reports about the prison, which had been labelled one of the worst and most expensive prisons in the UK.

"When he was appointed by Prisons' Minister Paul Goggins, it was described as a watershed for the Prison Service," he said.

"He arrived from Whitemoor High Security Prison in England with a reputation as a tough but firm governor who wasn't afraid to make tough decisions.

"My understanding was that he quickly became disillusioned with the amount of bureaucracy and red tape in the system and felt he wasn't being given the support and operational independence that he believed he had been promised when he took the job.

"I have been told he expressed these concerns on a number of occasions in recent weeks and even if these potential threats from dissidents hadn't arisen, there was a strong possibility that at some point he may have resigned anyway."

SDLP policing spokesperson Alex Attwood said Security Minister Paul Goggins should make a public statement about the resignation.

"The prison system needs a Patten Report," he said.

"It needs root and branch change. Before and after devolution of justice, together with the reform of the Public Prosecution Service, the reform of prisons should have top priority."

The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is expected to announce later it has put its weapons beyond use.

The loyalist paramilitary group has five weeks to meet the government's 9 February deadline to complete the decommissioning of its weapons.

Once this amnesty ends, any UDA weapons discovered by police would be forensically tested and evidence could be used in future court cases.

It is understood the UDA leadership put its weapons beyond use in recent weeks.

The UDA and the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) , a cover name it used for its paramilitary activities, are suspected of being behind 400 murders between 1971 and 2001.

A second, and older loyalist group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) completed decommissioning in June last year.

Details of the UDA process are expected to be announced at a news conference on Wednesday morning and confirmed in a statement from General John de Chastelain, the head of the international decommissioning body which witnessed the act.

It is understood there will also be a statement from additional independent eyewitnesses on what happened to the UDA's arms .

The move comes more than 15 years after the UDA announced its ceasefire and 12 years after the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning was set up.

A breakaway UDA faction in south east Antrim decommissioned a small quantity of weapons last summer and told General De Chastelain it would also complete the process before the February deadline.

The body which monitors paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland said in its last report the UDA remained effectively split into two distinct groups - the mainstream UDA and the south east Antrim group.

The Independent Monitoring Commission said in November members of both factions remained involved in a range of criminal activity.

A pipe bomb has been found at a community centre in Antrim where a GAA team was training, the town's mayor Adrian Watson has said.

A security alert was declared after a suspicious device was found outside the community centre on the Stiles estate.

Players from St Comgall's GAA Club were escorted from the premises by police and the area has been cordoned off.

Mr Watson said it was a "disgusting attack by mindless thugs who had nothing to offer the community".

"These are young men training in a community centre surrounded by hundreds of home," he added.

"They have done nothing wrong, bar be members of a GAA club."

Police have said they are looking for a second device and the area will remain cordoned off until Friday morning when the search will resume in daylight.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Goddam Christians and their 'religion of peace'.
Unless the whole of Ireland goes on a protest march I say nuke the lot of them.

Police were left with just minutes to clear the area around Newry courthouse before a car bomb weighing up to 250lbs exploded on Monday night.

No-one was killed or injured in the blast which was heard two miles away. But police said that was a "sheer miracle".

Dissident republicans are being blamed for the attack in which a number of buildings were damaged.

Newry centre could be closed for two days as a security operation continues.

"We could have been looking today at multiple deaths," Police Chief Superintendent Alisdair Robinson said.

People were still being moved to safety at the time of the explosion.

"It was very significant," he said.

"It was certainly big enough to have caused multiple casualties to anyone passing."

He said the blast happened just 17 minutes after a telephone warning which said that it would go off in half an hour.

Buildings in New Street including Downshire Road Presbyterian Church were damaged in the explosion.

The gates of the courthouse and a security hut were destroyed in the attack which is thought to be the work of dissident republicans opposed to the peace process.

There is severe traffic disruption in Newry as the area remains cordoned off and a security operation continues.

The main A1 road from Belfast to Newry has been closed at Damolly roundabout. Other roads closed include: Canal Street, Canal Quay, New Street, Trevor Hill, Church Avenue and Sandy Street.

Chief Constable Matt Baggott rejected suggestions that the police and the government had become complacent about the threat posed by dissident republicans.

"We have put many more police officers back on the streets, we are continuing to invest in the right capabilities and technology to tackle the dissident threat, and we are fully behind the devolution of power to Stormont, because again that's about the political consensus that we need," he said.

Chief Superintendent Robinson said: "We didn't get any calls warning of the bomb until 10.20pm which was from a third party.

"That stated that we had around 30 minutes to clear the area. The explosion went off at 10.37pm which was 17 minutes later.

"At the time we were still clearing the area. But for the fact there was divine intervention, there could have been multiple casualties."

The attack comes days after a mortar bomb was abandoned near a police station in the village of Keady, about 20 miles away.

The attack is thought to be the first time a large car bomb has exploded in Northern Ireland since the bombing of Stewartstown police station in 2000.

In the last few years a number of large car bombs been have planted but have either failed to detonate or only partially detonated.

There have also been several attacks with smaller under-car bombs such as the one which almost killed a police officer in County Antrim in January.

BBC NI Home Affairs correspondent Vincent Kearney said police had been bracing themselves for some kind of response to the Hillsborough Agreement, signed just over two weeks ago.

"The fact that it has taken them so long to respond tells us something about their capabilities," he said.

Prime Minster Gordon Brown's official spokesman condemned the attack.

"Such acts are entirely unrepresentative of the views of the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland ... we will not allow a tiny minority to turn the clock back," he said.

Sinn Fein MP for Newry and Armagh Conor Murphy said: "The fact that we're in the process of devolving policing and justice powers and there's an attack on a courthouse will not be lost on people.