THE horrific events in Paris on Friday night sent shockwaves around the world this week.

Flags have been at half mast as a mark of respect and books of condolence have been opened in the town centre for residents to pay tribute as rolling news coverage revealed gunmen and suicide bombers had carried out deadly attacks on a concert hall, a major stadium, restaurants and bars in the French capital.

But for many readers in Warrington, the senseless deaths of 129 people enjoying a night out with friends or family will have been an upsetting reminder of what happened on Bridge Street more than 20 years ago.

Tim Parry, aged 12, and three-yearold Johnathan Ball were equally innocent victims of terrorism when an IRA bomb exploded in the town centre on a busy Saturday afternoon before Mother’s Day.

Their heart-wrenching deaths led to the creation of a charity to be very proud of in Warrington in the shape of the The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace based at the Peace Centre in Great Sankey.

Providing support for victims and survivors of terrorist incidents, the charity has also been working in schools in areas where pupils may have been influenced by extreme ideologies.

Not too long ago one of the cause’s programmes was under threat before the government stepped in to provide funding for them to carry on their vital work.

Staff feared in 2014, the Survivors for Peace programme would not be able to continue beyond April after National Lottery cash dried up.

But, at the eleventh hour, £150,000 was pledged to the cause in the Budget.

Further Ministry of Justice funding was also announced earlier this year towards the Survivors Assistance Network which helps restore victims’ feeling of personal safety and wellbeing and, as far as possible, enables them to return to the lives they had before the incident.

With hundreds of people wounded and French police in the last few days describing the carnage that faced them when they entered the Bataclan theatre, where at least 89 people were killed, there will no doubt be many people who will benefit from such a unique programme.

And it is hard to disagree with the charity’s chief executive Nick Taylor when he said last year it was ‘perverse’ cake sales, raffles and tombolas had been funding their fight against extremism.

Speaking in September last year after new ‘anti-terror’ measures had been announced by the Prime Minister, he called for the government to recognise ‘prevention was better than cure’ and said charities should not have to ‘rely on people’s generosity to tackle one of society’s biggest challenges’.

With David Cameron this week promising to boost security spending by £2billion including extra funding for intelligence and special military units, we will have to wait and see whether that also means more money for the causes hoping to strike at the root causes of the problem and assist those affected by terrorism