Political leaders insisted yesterday that Northern Ireland's peace process would not be derailed following a huge car bombing, just weeks after they clinched a deal on devolving sensitive policing powers.
Police said it was a "sheer miracle" that no one was killed or hurt by the bomb near a courthouse in Newry, south of Belfast.
The blast, which was heard up to 27 kilometres away, happened around 10.30 p.m. on Monday as officers were evacuating the area after two coded warnings received just a quarter of an hour beforehand.
"It is only by sheer miracle that nobody was killed or injured," said the Police Service of Northern Ireland's area commander Sam Cordiner.
Officers say the bomb suggests dissidents are escalating their attacks, three weeks after Northern Ireland's leaders sealed a hard-fought accord to transfer sensitive policing and justice powers from London to Belfast.
But British Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted the latest incident will not derail what is the final big step in the process of devolution.
"Such action is, we believe, entirely unrepresentative of the views of the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland," his official spokesman said.
"Northern Ireland's politicians have been working incredibly hard to deliver a successful conclusion to the peace process and they will not allow a tiny minority to turn the clock back."
Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin added that political leaders would not be distracted from making progress "by a small criminal minority who seek to drag Northern Ireland into the mire of hatred and violence".
Policing and justice powers are due to transfer from London to Belfast on April 12 and the Northern Ireland Assembly will vote on the deal on March 9.
The negotiations between coalition government partners the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Sinn Fein, which wants a united Ireland, on the issue were painful and drawn out.
The situation was complicated when First Minister Peter Robinson of the DUP temporarily stepped aside to fight allegations of financial impropriety linked to his wife's affair with a 19-year-old.
Mr Robinson was cleared and is now back in office. He condemned the blast, saying the perpetrators wanted "to return Northern Ireland to its darkest past".
"They will not succeed, for I am equally determined that we will continue to move forward and to protect and defend the very same institutions they seek to destroy," he said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the Newry attack and police say it is too early to comment but Danny Kennedy, deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party, blamed dissident republicans.
"I and my party have been concerned for some time that the threats posed by republican dissidents have been viewed with a certain amount of complacency," he said.
"We now face a deteriorating security situation, particularly in border constituencies, such as my own in Newry and Armagh."
Northern Ireland's three decades of violence known as The Troubles, in which more than 3,500 people died, was largely ended by a 1998 peace deal which paved the way for devolution of power from politicians in London to Belfast.
But there are still splinter groups opposed to the peace process.