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BreakingNews.ie

11/07/2005 - 17:02:16

A loyalist paramilitary chief was under protection tonight after rival gunmen in Belfast murdered a teenager and left a man fighting for his life.

As police swamped the north of the city in a bid to halt feuding terrorists carrying out more killings, personal bodyguards were drafted in to watch over the Ulster Volunteer Force boss.

The move came after four shootings in less than 24 hours involving his organisation and its sworn enemies in the splinter Loyalist Volunteer Force.

In one attack, three gunmen broke into a house at Dhu Varren just before 2am today and opened fire on a 19-year-old man.

The victim, whose partner and their baby were also at home, died later in hospital.

UVF men have been blamed for the murder.

A light blue Peugeot 405 car thought to have been used by the killers was later found on fire.

Soon after, a man jumped from the window of a house in nearby Woodvale Pass as masked men tried to smash their way in.

The retaliation killing followed three earlier attacks blamed on the LVF.

In the most serious, a man in his 20s was shot several times as he walked his dogs past a bonfire site on the Crumlin Road.

He was critically injured in the midnight shooting and underwent emergency surgery.

It also emerged that a mother and child escaped injury early on Sunday morning when shots were fired into a house on Silverstream Avenue and at a nearby address.

One man was arrested by police.

The hatred that has festered between the two organisations ever since UVF men broke away to form the LVF nearly a decade ago shows no sign of abating.

Several men on both sides have been killed as the mutual loathing and desire for supremacy sporadically erupts into all-out violence.

The latest attacks are thought to be linked to a murder in the city earlier this month.

Jameson Lockhart was gunned down as he sat on a lorry in east Belfast on July 1.

The 25-year-old victim, who was from the north of the city and believed to have LVF connections, had been clearing rubble from the site of a demolished bar when the killers struck.

The detective in charge of the latest murder investigation confirmed officers probing the Lockhart assassination have been drafted in to hunt down the killers.

Chief Superintendent Phil Wright said: “I believe all these attacks are down to the loyalist feud. “They were carried out by personalities from these organisations.

“We have got detectives and uniformed staff working on this from the Lockhart murder team.”

As loyalists prepared to light bonfires tonight to mark the beginning of the annual Twelfth of July celebrations, the security forces were attempting to stop further bloodshed.

“I’m sure the public has seen the high visibility of policing that has taken place. We have put these resources in and I’m confident we are doing everything we possibly can,” Mr Wright added.

But sources in the area conceded more attacks were almost inevitable.

“The UVF is on full alert and there is no doubt they will hit back,” one said.

“Their supreme commander has also been given personal bodyguards – it’s that serious.”

Police and political representatives urged those with influence to help calm the situation.

Nigel Dodds, the MP for North Belfast, claimed the public was sickened by the feuding and called for Security Minister Shaun Woodward to give police more support.

The Democratic Unionist representative said: “The ordinary people of north Belfast do not want this violence.

“Shaun Woodward must ensure the police have the necessary resources to deal with everything they have to contend with over the next 48 hours and beyond.

“The lesson of history surely teaches those intent on continuing this violence that it achieves absolutely nothing and that it is the last thing loyalists want.”

Ulster Unionist Chris McGimpsey warned loyalists they were staring into the abyss.

He said: “Both sides need to take a long look at themselves before they plunge our community into a feud.”

Belfast Telegraph

Incident comes after parade threat

By Andrea Clements
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
11 July 2005

A CATHOLIC couple whose home near a north Belfast interface was targeted in a sectarian arson attack believe those behind the incident intended to kill them.

The pair, who live on the Crumlin Road near the Ardoyne shopfronts, say the incident in the early hours of yesterday morning comes after they were threatened by loyalists during last month’s Tour of the North parade, which passed through the area.

An attacker broke the living room window at their house at about 3.40am.

Petrol was poured in and set alight.

The woman occupant of the house was treated for the effects of smoke inhalation.

She and her husband were woken by noise downstairs.

He said: “I ran into the front room and saw the flames.

“I saw a guy with a petrol can and thought he was going to pour it over my car.

“Then he threw it down at the fence, got into a high-powered white car, turned off the lights and drove off.

“This was not a random petrol bomb attack but deliberate attempted murder.”

The couple said their property had been targeted before but that incidents seemed to happen only during the summer.

They claim that when they were in their garden on June 17, the evening of the Tour of the North parade, they were threatened by loyalists.

Eighteen police officers were injured when they came under sustained attack that night, and 11 members of the public were also hurt when trouble flared as the contentious Orange Order parade passed the Ardoyne shopfronts.

“They said they’d be back to burn us out and made gestures like they were going to shoot us.

“We just want to live our lives in peace. We don’t want to be seen as a threat to anyone,” the pair added.

The residents say they have been told that CCTV cameras, about 200 yards from their home, did not record the incident.

But a PSNI spokeswoman said police did not comment on operational matters or about what the camera was filming at the time.

Police have appealed for anyone with information to contact them.

Sinn Fein MLA Michael Ferguson said the incident “epitomised the Twelfth celebrations for nationalists living in north Belfast”.

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton, Political Correspondent
cthornton@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
11 July 2005

ARDOYNE residents made a last ditch effort today to reroute tomorrow’s key flashpoint marches, citing weekend violence.

As thousands of Orangemen prepared for the culmination of the marching season, an attack on a house along the route of tomorrow’s disputed parades prompted a request for the Parades Commission to review their decision to allow the marches to go ahead.

And Sinn Fein Assembly member Gerry Kelly was due to make the same argument to Security Minister Shaun Woodward this afternoon. Mr Kelly said the violence has signficantly raised tensions.

The annual Drumcree parade - which has routinely been the most serious security threat during recent marching seasons - passed off quietly yesterday, as concerns about unrest shifted to north Belfast.

Marches along the Crumlin Road at Ardoyne shops sparked violence last month and during last year’s Twelfth.

As the residents pushed for the Parades Commission to change its decision, Sinn Fein said the attack on a Catholic home on the Crumlin Road and last night’s suspected inter-loyalist shootings - which left one man dead - have signficantly raised tensions.

More than 100 Orangemen and bandsmen - as well as scores of supporters - are due to march along the Crumlin Road in the morning to link with the main parade. They are due to return in the evening.

Mr Kelly said the commission should accept a compromise proposal by residents, which would see the parade pass in the morning but return by another route. He said rerouting the evening parade “is the only sensible option”.

Concerns about tomorrow’s parade have been heightened by republicans saying they would not police protesters to prevent violence.

Sinn Fein said former IRA prisoners would not attempt to marshal Ardoyne protesters because of the recent re-arrest of Shankill bomber Sean Kelly.

Daily Ireland

Jarlath Kearney

Ardoyne residents will this morning call on the Parades Commission to review its approval of two controversial Orange Order marches in north Belfast.
The application for a review follows the attempted murder of a Catholic family in the Crumlin Road in the north of the city.
The Crumlin Road at Ardoyne, together with the Dales and Mountainview, is one of three Catholic areas the Orange Order is seeking to march past.
Early yesterday, a loyalist mob smashed windows at a house on the front of the Crumlin Road opposite the Ardoyne shops before trying to set the premises alight.
Although the arson attempt failed, angry locals said last night that loyalist marchers had openly threatened residents’ homes when the PSNI forced through the last Orange parade on June 17.
On Saturday night, hundreds of local residents met in Ardoyne to discuss tomorrow’s marches. Joe Marley, a spokesperson for the Ardoyne Parades Dialogue Group said the meeting had discussed a range of peaceful responses to the situation.
“There was a consensus throughout Ardoyne, the Dales and Mountainview that residents need to effect a positive protest and clearly demonstrate our opposition to the Parades Commission’s decision.
“That protest needs to focus on the problem in a way that doesn’t let the media or the Parades Commission or the Orange Order off the hook. The issues are clear-cut. The Orange Order marches are being forced through this area without any regard for the dignity or rights of local residents.”
Following yesterday morning’s sectarian attack, the residents’ group is asking the Parades Commission to review its position.
“The rationale for the application is the attempted murder of residents on the Crumlin Road.
“Only a few weeks ago, Orange supporters followed the march and made threats against the lives of local residents. We can now see that those threats weren’t idle. This was a deliberate attempt to try to murder people.
“Is the Parades Commission willing to ignore the rights of residents on the Crumlin Road to live free from sectarian harassment and actual sectarian attacks?” the residents’ spokesperson said.
Added to tomorrow’s tinderbox is ongoing anger throughout the nationalist community about the reimprisonment of Seán Kelly.
Mr Kelly was released in 2000 under the early release terms of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement but had his licence suspended on June 18. He was reimprisoned at the direction of secretary of state Peter Hain.
The republican has been prominent in recent years, along with other ex-prisoners, in calming interface areas in north Belfast.
Last week, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said ex-prisoners released under licence could not be expected to intervene tomorrow.

Speaking on RTÉ radio yesterday, Tasoieach Bertie Ahern described Mr Kelly as “a source of good” over recent years in north Belfast.
“He had been involved in the parades issue and he had been involved as a source of good… He certainly was, in recent times, helpful in trying to keep order,” Mr Ahern said.
Tomorrow’s Ardoyne marches contrast with the situation in Derry city and at Drumcree, Co Armagh.
Yesterday’s Drumcree march was the most low-key for several years. A significantly scaled-down PSNI presence blocked the Orange Order march from proceeding down the nationalist Garvaghy Road. Orangemen mounted only a token protest to the blockade.
Following sustained dialogue involving Bogside residents, the Orange Order and other interested parties in Derry city, tomorrow’s Orange demonstration in the city is expected to proceed without opposition.
It will mark the first occasion since 1992 that the Co Derry Orange march has been held in the city.
The dialogue-based agreement in Derry has been held up across the North as a model for resolving marching disputes.

Guardian

Staff and agencies
Monday July 11, 2005

The children’s minister, Beverley Hughes, is holding a summit with child protection experts and African church leaders next week in a bid to combat the abuse of children through ritual exorcisms, it emerged today.

The summit, which will also involve Home Office ministers, immigration officials and the police, could result in religious leaders from certain African states being barred from entering the UK, said Ms Hughes.

>>READ ON

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RTE

11 July 2005 16:11

Efforts to secure the release of the five Mayo men jailed for contempt of court in relation to the Shell Corrib gas field development are continuing in the High Court this afternoon.

Lawyers for the men are asking the court to vary the original High Court order which the men have been found to be in contempt of.

They want the words construction and installation deleted from the order and say that if this was done they would be happy to express their regret at having disobeyed the order.

The men say the order was made on the basis that Shell had the necessary consents to enter their lands for the purpose of installing a gas pipeline and that consent had not been given by the Minister for the Environment.

However, Shell says it is at present engaged in preparatory work and the ministerial consent provides for phased approval at various stages.

Patrick Hanratty SC for Shell said that no work in relation to the digging of the trench or installation of the pipeline has taken place or will take place until the approval is given.

He said Shell had no interest in the five men being in prison and if they would be comforted by an undertaking from the company to that effect they had no problem doing it.

However, Mr Justice Finnegan warned that the men are in contempt of court. He said that if someone has a problem with a court order then they should come back to the court, not breach the order.

BreakingNews.ie

11/07/2005 - 14:17:51

Tensions are rising in the North in advance of the Orange Order’s annual Twelfth of July parades tomorrow.

A series of loyalist attacks on Catholic targets took place over the weekend, with a Catholic woman forced out of her home in the Co Antrim village of Ahoghill yesterday.

Sectarian graffiti has also been daubed on a Catholic church in nearby Ballymena, while loyalists in Belfast tried to set fire to a house in Ardoyne where a public meeting was held at the weekend to discuss tomorrow’s parade in the area.

In the east of the city, loyalists have erected loudspeakers to broadcast sectarian music across the peaceline into the grounds of St Matthew’s Church in the Short Strand.

A growing feud between the Ulster Volunteer Force and Loyalist Volunteer Force, meanwhile, is threatening to add to the tensions.

One man was killed overnight and a second was seriously injured in two shootings that are being linked to the feud.

BBC

Police have been dealing with an ongoing security alert in Ballycastle.

The alert began on Sunday after a telephoned bomb warning was received.

The police have cordoned off the crossroads at Church Road and Ramone Road in the County Antrim town.

BBC

Police are investigating a sectarian attack on a Catholic church in Ballymena.

Paint was thrown over the church in Harryvile and a slogan was daubed on the door.

Sinn Fein’s Philip McGuigan said loyalists were demonstrating that Catholics were not welcome to attend their own church.

“This is the latest in an ongoing campaign against this chapel and the community that uses it,” he said.

BreakingNews.ie

11/07/2005 - 10:54:27

Feuding loyalist paramilitaries in Belfast were today blamed for shooting one man dead and critically wounding another.

A 19-year-old was killed by three gunmen who burst into a house in the north of the city and opened fire.

He was rushed to hospital from the scene of the attack at Dhu Varren Crescent just after 1.30am but died later.

A light blue Peugeot 405 car suspected of being used by the killers was found on fire soon afterwards at Cupar Way in the fiercely loyalist Shankill area.

Hours earlier, a man in his 20s was shot several times in the upper body at Crumlin Road, near Glenbank.

Police said he was critically wounded and undergoing emergency treatment.

A stretch of the Crumlin Road, one of the main routes into the city centre, was closed off as detectives hunted for clues.

Although police could not confirm if the attacks were linked, reliable sources claimed escalating tensions between the Ulster Volunteer Force and splinter Loyalist Volunteer Force were to blame.

The shootings came just 24 hours after an attack on a home in the nearby Ballysillan district and two men were beaten up by rival paramilitaries.

It is understood the LVF carried out at least one of the latest shootings. Sources in the area conceded that revenge attacks were almost inevitable.

“The UVF is on full alert and there is no doubt they will hit back,” one said.

Loyalist terrorists have a long and bloody history of conflicts on the streets of Belfast.

Several men have been murdered over the last five years, including senior paramilitaries, as the rival organisations battle for supremacy.

Police would not confirm if the latest attacks were linked, but they appealed for calm and urged community representatives to help ease tensions in the area.

Their plea was echoed by Chris McGimpsey, an Ulster Unionist councillor in Belfast.

He said: “The last thing we need is another loyalist feud. Both sides need to take a long look at themselves before they plunge our community into a feud.”

BreakingNews.ie

11/07/2005 - 11:56:23

The SDLP has accused loyalists of forcing a Catholic woman to flee her home of 50 years in the mainly Protestant village of Ahoghill in Co Antrim.

The SDLP said Kathleen McCaughey had been resisting intimidation at the hands of loyalists for years, but had decided to leave her home following a recent intensification in the campaign.

Party spokesman Sean Farren claimed a drum-beating crowd gathered in front of her house on Thursday night in an effort to expel her and her family from the area.

“Despite her previously declared determination to stay, she had no option but to leave and had to do it under police protection,” he said.

Irish Times

Frank Millar, London Editor, and Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor

The IRA will not disband but will have no role other than to pursue the goal of a united Ireland by purely peaceful means, in the scenario now being considered by republican leaders.

Sinn Féin MPs Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are believed to be intimately involved in the internal republican debate which the two governments hope will yield a statement from the IRA about its future status within weeks. However, The Irish Times understands that decisions about the IRA’s possible “new mode” will not involve the holding of a republican convention or changes to the IRA’s constitution and mission statement.

The London bombings should increase the pressure on the IRA to finally deliver weapons’ decommissioning and the end of all paramilitary activity, according to Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman David Lidington.

He said he believed last Thursday’s terror attacks would “reinforce a political climate, in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom, that terrorism is totally unacceptable.”

He added: “I hope it will add to the pressure on the Provisionals to deliver finally on what they promised seven or eight years ago.”

The indications are, also, that the expected republican moves are not predicated on the assumption that the Democratic Unionist Party will in turn agree the early resumption of a power-sharing government at Stormont.

There were concerns in Belfast yesterday that the Orange Order parade in Ardoyne tomorrow night and the reimprisonment of Shankill bomber Seán Kelly could cause some difficulties. “People should not underestimate the problems and dangers that exist for Tuesday,” a Sinn Féin spokesman said.

Asked could the Kelly and Ardoyne parade issues adversely affect the timing and content of the IRA statement he said that was a matter for the IRA. “Obviously these will be factors in the debate concerning the anger there is among republicans out there, especially in Ardoyne and north Belfast generally.”

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday signalled his worry that possible trouble during the parade past the Ardoyne shops and republican anger over the jailing of Kelly could cause problems. He did not directly challenge the decision to send Kelly back to jail for allegedly breaching the terms of his release, but said the jailing created “some shockwaves through the nationalist community”. He said Kelly had been “helpful in trying to keep order” during confrontations.