Police have described a bomb left near Londonderry courthouse last Sunday as a “substantial viable device”. Choirboys had to be evacuated from the nearby C of I Cathedral. Dean Morton and his family had to leave the Deanery overnight.
District Commander, Stephen Martin, said a beer keg, left in a stolen car, contained around 50kg of home-made explosives.
He said he believed it was left by dissident republicans, and could have caused death or serious injury.
Dozens of residents were moved from sheltered housing during the alert.
The Church of Ireland Dean of Derry, Very Rev Dr WilIiam Morton, helped reunite children with their parents following the evacuation of his own family from their home next to the cathedral.
Dean Morton’s two youngest sons, Nicky (16) and Connor (12), were among the dozens of children in the choir on Sunday night.
The Morton family were forced to spend the night with friends in the Waterside and were still unable to get home until late yesterday afternoon.
Dean Morton said: “Cross-community work has been so strong here and it has been going on for years. In terms of the cathedral building, it welcomes people of all Christian religions or those of no religion at all.
“There has always been that co-operation here.
“The people who left this device here did achieve disruption, but they also galvanised the resolve on the part of all right-thinking people to continue on working at what they are doing to maintain and build an open, wholesome community.”
Dean William Morton described the incident as a “logistical nightmare”.
He contacted parents of choirboys, some of them as young as seven, who were at the Cathedral for a rehearsal for the opera, Tosca.