The petition was launched last week by a group of community workers from the city and has already secured signatures from people across a wide range of community backgrounds, from former republican paramlitaries to DUP representatives.

One of the organisers of the petition, Tony Doherty, from the Brandywell and Bogside Initiative, said members of the Moore and Shiels families have given their support to the campaign. 22 year-old Emmett Shiels was raised by the Moore family from the age of seven months old.

The petition, which is addressed to the leaderships of the INLA, Continuity IRA and the Real IRA, calls on them to abandon their armed campaign and engage in dialogue with community leaders to find a way to pursue their objectives “through political means only.”

Mr. Doherty, and the other community workers behind the project, are calling for a meeting with the leaderships of the armed republican groups to call on them to announce a ceasefire.

The campaign has already received the backing of a number of prominent people in Derry including Foyle MP Mark Durkan, Sinn Féin MLAs Martina Anderson and Raymond McCartney, District Policing Partnership board member Martin Connolly, former DUP mayor of Derry and Caw community worker, Drew Thompson, the chief executive of City Centre Initiative, Sean Trainor and many others.

Announcing his support for the appeal, Mark Durkan said: “I believe that the Derry community should give a clear, unmistakable message to those who still engage in violence for whatever cause or excuse. I do not believe that any of the past four decades of violence was ever justified and that has been the constant position of the SDLP.We all welcome the fact that many who pursued or supported Provo violence came to see its futility if not renounce its brutality.

“The so-called dissidents have stayed stuck in Provo talk and must be challenged to respect the democratic will of the Irish people and the peaceful intent of the people of Derry,” he said.

Anyone wishing to sign the petition can do so by e-mailing seamas@olt.ie