SAOIRSE32

BBC

The UVF has been linked to four murders in recent months

The Independent Monitoring Commission has forwarded a special report on a loyalist feud to the government.

The outlawed Ulster Volunteer Force has been linked to four recent murders and rioting in north Belfast on Monday.

The government has come under pressure to “specify” the organisation, which would mean a statement that it no longer recognises its ceasefire.

A government spokesman said that the IMC report would be published “as soon as practicable”.

Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine cautioned against specifying the paramilitary grouping, but said he believed it was inevitable.

“I think that has been expected for some time,” Mr Ervine said.

“The cacophony of sound about specification of the UVF has never been heard from within nationalism for the specification of the IRA, whether it be over McCartney, the bank robbery or indeed we go back as far as the Direct Action Against Drugs killings, of which there were over 12.”

The PUP is linked to the UVF and Red Hand Commando.

The Independent Monitoring Commission confirmed on Tuesday that it had presented an ad-hoc report on the ongoing loyalist feud to the British and Irish governments.

‘Out of control’

Alliance Party justice spokesman Stephen Farry said that the IMC’s report was “necessary” as “the UVF are clearly out of control”.

“Hopefully, this move will now force the hand of government in recognising that the UVF ceasefire is non-existent. This is something that is perfectly clear to the whole community in Northern Ireland,” he added.

Last week, the SDLP urged the Independent Monitoring Commission to report soon on the status of the UVF’s ceasefire.

At a meeting with the IMC on Friday, SDLP assembly member Dolores Kelly said her party had urged that an IMC report on the so-called ceasefire be published earlier than the planned date of mid-October.

“The main thrust of the meeting was the UVF ceasefire that doesn’t exist and everyone else seems to be ignoring it,” she said, adding that her party was pressing for immediate action.

‘Indifference’

In a recent interview, SDLP leader Mark Durkan also accused Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain of acting with “indifference” towards the UVF ceasefire.

In July, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said he intended to withhold the PUP’s assembly allowances for another year.

The decision followed the latest report from the Independent Monitoring Commission, which said the UVF and Red Hand Commando remained active, violent and involved in organised crime.

The Independent Monitoring Commission was set up by the British and Irish governments in January 2004.

It is a crucial element in the two governments’ plans for restoring devolution, which was suspended in October 2002 amid allegations of IRA intelligence gathering at the Northern Ireland Office.

BBC f

Officers in riot gear were struck with missiles

Children as young as five have been involved in “recreational rioting” in north Belfast, a senior police officer has revealed.

Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland appealed for calm following rioting in the loyalist Woodvale and Shankill Road areas on Monday.

He said police had intelligence that text messages were sent around schools to plan further rioting for Tuesday.

Five people arrested on the Shankill were freed, pending further inquiries.

Mr McCausland said “a sinister element” was controlling the rioting.

“It’s a very difficult situation, and I am calling on people to exercise restraint to calm the situation down,” he said.

“I think it’s very important that everybody in the community realises that we are their police service. We are not here to be used as a political football.

Police refute inaction claim

“My officers have to go up every single night into north Belfast to calm the situation down. We do not want to have to do that.”

The UVF was blamed after petrol bombs, bricks and bottles were hurled at police and vehicles set on fire in the Woodvale area on Monday.

There were no injuries in the sustained rioting, which began after police moved in to carry out searches linked to a UVF “show of strength” on Saturday.

Mr McCausland said officers had to caution a five-year-old who they caught throwing stones on the Crumlin Road.

“He was taken home to his parents and handed over with a strong telling off,” he said.

Later in the Shankill Road area, water cannon were deployed to halt rioting on Monday night as police came under attack.

Police have denied separate allegations of both inaction and heavy-handedness by officers.

Belfast Telegraph

Sectarian attacks unchallenged, claims cleric

By Alf McCreary, Religion Correspondent
newsdesk@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
06 September 2005

A BALLYMENA priest has strongly criticised the Presbyterian Moderator for his reaction to the spate of sectarian attacks in Co Antrim.

Fr John Burns, curate of All Saints Church, Ballymena, hit out at the Rt Rev Dr Harry Uprichard and said: “Dr Uprichard may be good at making statements, but as far as I am concerned he is the ‘invisible moderator’ because no-one has seen him on the ground dealing with these issues that have arisen in Ahoghill and Ballymena.”

Dr Uprichard is minister of Trinity Church in Ahoghill.

Fr Burns claimed Dr Uprichard had not given a lead to his flock on these matters.

Dr Uprichard, who has been on holiday for three weeks, issued a statement at the weekend expressing his distress at “the good name of Ahoghill being maligned”.

He also said he had been encouraged by a letter from the local parish priest, Fr Hugh O’Hagan, thanking Presbyterians for “the compassion and dignity of their response to what occurred lately”.

But Fr Burns said: “Dr Uprichard may have been on holiday, but he has been moderator for three months now, and it is important to be seen to meet Catholics on the ground and to offer them his direct support and friendship.”

A spokesman for the Presbyterian Church said he understood Fr Burns had written to Dr Uprichard and that the contents of the letter would be closely studied.

However, the Catholic cleric did praise the local Church of Ireland bishop, the Rt Rev Dr Alan Harper, who made a strong statement against the attacks at the weekend, and spoke at Catholic services in the Ballymena area on Sunday.

Belfast Telegraph

By Chris Thornton, Political Correspondent
cthornton@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
06 September 2005

THE DUP and Sinn Fein have clashed at the European Parliament’s first session after its summer recess.

During an adjournment debate last night, DUP MEP, Jim Allister, accused the Republic’s government of “harbouring three convicted international terrorists” because of the continuing Colombia Three affair.

But Sinn Fein MEP Bairbre de Brun attacked the DUP over this summer’s loyalist violence, calling on Mr Allister to stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Catholic constituents in vulnerable areas.

Mr Allister told MEPs that the Dublin Government is failing to meet its international obligations by not arresting James Monaghan, Martin McCauley and Niall Connolly.

“I want to draw attention to the fact that since we last met a Member State, the Republic of Ireland, shamefully has been harbouring three convicted international terrorists,” he said.

“Monaghan, Connolly and McCauley, were duly convicted of training FARC guerrillas in Colombia, skipped bail - partly put up by the Dublin Government - and now, on the back of a sordid deal with the IRA, and despite Interpol warrants are brazenly flaunting themselves in Dublin.”

Outside the parliamentary session, Ms de Brún said attacks on Catholic homes, schools and churches “have been an ever-present reality” this summer.

“Residents feel vulnerable and powerless in the face of unionist paramilitary intimidation. They feel angry at the incompetence and inaction of the PSNI, and the relative silence and inaction of unionist political representatives,” she said.

She called on Mr Allister “to stand shoulder to shoulder with his constituents in North Antrim, Dunmurry, Ardoyne and the Short Strand”.

Belfast Telegraph

By Jonathan McCambridge, Crime Correspondent
jmccambridge@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
06 September 2005

THE UVF was today accused of trying to take control of the streets of north Belfast following another night of petrol bomb attacks on police.

However, a former PUP leader has said he does not believe the UVF is orchestrating rioting in the Woodvale area and has called for the violence to be brought to an end.

Questions have also been asked about police tactics after officers stayed in their Land Rovers as serious violence erupted for hours yesterday.

Trouble flared again late last night when police were pelted with petrol bombs and stones.

The violence followed rioting earlier in the day after police carried out searches in response to an armed UVF show of strength.

A mob of up to 100 masked youths, enraged by the police searches, hijacked and set alight a number of vans and lorries and rioted for four hours.

Five more people were arrested in the early hours of this morning for riotous behaviour. This follows a number of arrests yesterday.

Two men arrested yesterday, aged 20 and 17, will appear in court today charged with riotous assembly.

A 33-year-old man, arrested on Saturday, will also appear charged with criminal damage and attempted intimidation.

SDLP Assembly member, Alban Maginness, said people should be in no doubt the UVF is responsible for the violence.

He said: “The UVF are upping the stakes and defying the police and lawful authority. They want to create a no-go area in north Belfast and that is intolerable.”

PSNI Operational Manager for the area, Superintendent Gary White, insisted that police actions were “proportionate” to the situation.

The senior officer also insisted that the UVF is not in control of north Belfast and that police have adequate resources to deal with paramilitary crime.

The UVF has murdered four people in Belfast over the summer as part of its feud with the LVF.

Belfast Telegraph

06 September 2005

Peter McBride

CAMPAIGNERS are urging a change in the law to prevent soldiers convicted of rape, murder or torture from remaining in the army.

Families of recruits who died at the notorious Deepcut barracks in Surrey last night joined supporters of the family of Belfast teenager Peter McBride to press for a legal ‘loophole’ to be closed.

Mr McBride (18) was gunned down as he ran away from a military checkpoint in the New Lodge district of north Belfast in September 1992.

Guardsmen Mark Wright and James Fisher served three years in jail for the murder of the father-of-two, but were allowed to rejoin the regiment and remain in the army.

At a meeting in London, timed to coincide with the anniversary of the killing, Paul O’Connor, of the Pat Finucane Centre, said: “The family can accept the release; what they have never accepted is that they (Wright and Fisher) remain in the British Army.

“While in jail they were visited by senior officers who encouraged them to remain loyal to the armed forces and said they would look after them.”

He said the two soldiers were allowed back because of Queen’s Regulations 9404 which states soldiers given a custodial sentence should be dismissed unless there were “exceptional reasons”.

Peter McBride’s mother, Jean, said: “Soldiers who kill, who rape or who bully must face the full rigour of the law like anyone else. Many different people are fed up with the lies and cover-ups and the culture of impunity that exists at the Ministry of Defence.”

BreakingNews.ie

06/09/2005 - 08:12:08

Police came under renewed attack from loyalist petrol bombers in the North early today.

Trouble flared again in north Belfast following several hours of uneasy peace after rioters took to the streets yesterday following searches linked to a paramilitary show of strength.

Petrol bombs, bricks, bottles and other missiles were hurled at officers in the Woodvale area. The Police Service responded with water cannon.

A police spokesman said five more people had been arrested for riotous behaviour, but there were no reports of any injuries.

Two people arrested yesterday – a 20-year-old man and a 17-year-old – are due in court in Belfast today charged with riotous assembly. A juvenile detained at the same time was released without charge.

The violence began when up to 100 masked youths, enraged by the police searches, hijacked and set alight a number of vans and lorries.

Fire crews drafted in to put out the flames were forced to withdraw after they too were attacked by the mob.

The violence raged for hours after a major police search operation mounted following a suspected UVF show of strength on Saturday.

A gun and loyalist paramilitary material was seized and four men were arrested on suspicion of serious terrorist offences over the weekend.

Police linked the street violence to the searches and said there appeared to have been “an element of orchestration behind it”.

The UVF, which is locked in a deadly feud with the rival loyalist LVF which has claimed four lives, has been accused of plotting the violence.

After officers were given the green light to fire baton rounds, the trouble stopped. However, masked youths remained on the streets throughout the evening and at around 11pm the trouble resumed and continued for several hours.

BBC

Up to 100 masked youths were on the street

Five more people have been arrested following attacks on police officers in a loyalist area of north Belfast.

Two others are due in court charged with public order offences linked to disturbances in the Woodvale area.

Petrol bombs, bricks, bottles and other missiles were hurled at police in riot gear. Water cannon were then deployed. No one was injured.

The clashes followed trouble earlier in the day when police were attacked as they carried out searches in the area.

On Monday afternoon, bricks and bottles were thrown at fire crews and several vehicles set on fire.

The trouble began as police moved in to carry out searches linked to a UVF “show of strength” on Saturday.

Four people were arrested over “serious terrorist activity” at the weekend. Another person arrested on Monday has been released without charge.

One resident did not defend the violence but accused the police of using “bully boy tactics” during the searches.

Superintendent Gary White said nothing could justify the attacks which followed.

“Even if police officers were heavy-handed, and I’m not for one second accepting that they were, but even if they were, does that justify three or four hours of rioting, petrol bombing and paint bombing?” he said.

“Seven vehicles have been hijacked, some of which have been burned out, people have lost their livelihoods. I just think it seems to be a convenient excuse.”

‘Elderly frightened’

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds, DUP, said the violence in the Shankill area was “unacceptable” and had frightened many elderly and frail people.

“I would urge people not to become involved in street violence since it is leaving in its wake a trail of destruction, putting local people in fear and setting back the regeneration of the area,” he said.

Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly called on unionist leaders to use their influence to end the violence.

“The failure to engage in the dialogue required to get the political process back on track is a failure of leadership. The public message seems to be that there is an acceptable level of loyalist violence, particularly if it is only nationalists and working class Protestant communities that are suffering,” he said.

Irish Independent

AN INTER-CHURCH row was sparked in Ballymena, Co Antrim, yesterday when a planned show of solidarity in the face of rising sectarian tensions failed to take place.

Nationalist anger was sparked when the Presbyterian moderator, Dr Harry Uprichard, refused to walk through the town with the Catholic bishop, Dr Patrick Walsh.

While Dr Uprichard said he would “feel comfortable” walking alongside the bishop to show solidarity, he did not think this was the way to meet the problem.

Local priest Fr John Burns said he was “disappointed” by the response of Dr Uprichard, who is a minister in the nearby town of Ahoghill where a number of Catholic homes and schools have been attacked.

He described the moderator’s reaction as belated and said it lacked content.

“He has been able to ignore the elephant in his living room for the last three months,” he said. The Church of Ireland Bishop of Connor, Dr Alan Harper, said church and political leaders must find ways to collaborate and show solidarity. “It doesn’t require any surrender of principle - what it requires is for people to stand together,” he said.

Since March, 42 sectarian attacks have been logged in the Ballymena area - 28 against Catholics and 14 on Protestants.

Meanwhile, the PSNI last night said three people had been arrested during violence clashes in north Belfast in which up to 100 masked youths staged a “serious and sustained” attack on officers.

Seven vehicles were hijacked during thedisturbances.

Dominic Cunningham

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Date: 5 Meán Fómhair / September 2005

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In this issue:
1. Lessons in hate
2. Disturbances in south Belfast
3. Parades body blamed for ‘Derg clash
4. LVF hold nationalist children at gunpoint in raid for arms
5. Hunger strike at Guantanamo
6. Shell refuses to waive Rossport Five injunction
7. Council decision ‘wrong’

1. LESSONS IN HATE

THE British colonial police are set to deploy heavily armed patrols to guard nationalist primary schools in north Antrim after a spate of sectarian attacks.

In scenes reminiscent of the 2002 Holy Cross crisis when loyalist protesters attempted to stop nationalist schoolgirls from attending Holy Cross Primary School in north Belfast, heavily armed RUC\PSNI officers have been tasked to guard six nationalist schools in the Ballymena district.

The move came just hours after loyalist arsonists targeted St Louis’ primary school in Ballymena.
One room was gutted and ten others suffered smoke damage after flammable liquid was poured through a broken window on August 30.

Just hours earlier St Mary’s primary school in the town’s Harryville district was damaged by fire in a similar loyalist arson attack.

Children who were supposed to start their first day at school will not now start until Monday, as a clean-up operation gets under way at St Louis’.

Principal Liam Corey said he is saddened by the attack.

“This is very disappointing. The building supervisor and staff have worked hard to have the school ready for the new start. The Primary Seven room and its resources are completely destroyed. This attack certainly fits in with a pattern in Ballymena in recent weeks.”

Bishop of Down and Connor Patrick Walsh, who visited St Louis’ and St Mary’s yesterday, called on political leaders to find a solution to the attacks.

“In this situation, party political interests must be set aside and all must be seen to stand for what is for the good of the entire community.”

Nationalists living in north Antrim have been the focus of a loyalist campaign of intimidation and violence since the beginning of June.

In recent weeks, five Catholic chapels have been targeted in multiple loyalist attacks while four nationalist primary schools have been damaged in loyalist paint and firebomb attacks.

Since July three nationalist families have been forced to flee the nearby village of Ahoghill after a series of fire and paint bomb attacks on their homes. The British Colonial police, which has been criticised for its approach to the sectarian pogrom, handed local residents fire blankets and smoke alarms after receiving threats from loyalists.

2. DISTURBANCES IN SOUTH BELFAST

A BRITISH colonial police presence was maintained in the Donegal Pass area of south Belfast on September 2 following the removal of GAA flags by members of a loyalist death squad. The flags were put up to celebrate a local GAA football team reaching a county final.

At the height of the clashes, the RUC/PSNI were attacked and large lines of traffic were diverted.
Loyalist are also believed to have thrown petrol bombs into a car park used by members of the British Colonial police at Donegal Pass beside Shaftsbury Square.

The previous night, when GAA supporters put up the flags along the lower Ormeau Road, it is thought that loyalists linked to a Loyalist death squad then intervened to remove them.

Very quickly groups of local youths began stoning each other. At one stage hundreds of youths were involved in the disturbance.

3. PARADES BODY BLAMED FOR ‘DERG CLASH

THE British Parades Commission over-ruled a recommendation from its own moderator when it allowed a contentious loyalist Royal Black Preceptory parade through the nationalist Ferguson Crescent area of Castlederg on August 27, according to furious local residents.

Seven members of the British Colonial police, the 75-year-old district master of No. 6 chapter and another member of the Royal Black Preceptory were among those injured when the parade was attacked as it returned from a demonstration in Newtownstewart.

The trouble broke out when the parade passed through the nationalist Ferguson Crescent area - a route approved by the British Parades Commission - where dozens of Tyrone supporters were celebrating their team’s victory over Dublin in nearby pubs.
TheRUC\PSNI said one of its members suffered a broken cheekbone while the loyalist preceptory members had received facial injuries.

According to local residents, the contentiousness of Ferguson Crescent in Castlederg is akin to the Garvaghey Road in Portadown, albeit on a smaller scale. In just five months, there have been in the region of 28 parades through the overwhelmingly nationalist area by assorted Loyal Orders, including the Orange Order, the Royal Black Preceptory and, more controversially, the Castlederg Young Loyalist Flute Band and the Pride of the Derg Flute Band, both linked to loyalist death squads.

A snapshot of the marching season in the town shows that in July alone there were nine parades, four of which took place on the Twelfth. There were two on the 11th night, one of which the Castlederg Young Loyalists which had proposed Ferguson Crescent on its route. On that occasion, the British Parades Commission prohibited it from marching down that street. The same band was again prohibited on August 12, but the Loyalist Flute Band, undeterred, has applied to include the same street on its route for a parade, which takes place on September 17.

The forthcoming parade, according to its own application, will include 73 bands with 2013 people in attendance. A ruling will be made shortly on that application. The Loyalist band is not the only one in the Derg to have been banned from Ferguson Crescent. The Mitchelbourne Apprentice Boys had also applied to include the area in its route in a parade on August 13 when two parades were staged in the town, but was prohibited by the British Commission.

Also in July, the Pride of Derg Flute Band and the Lislaird band also applied for a parade in the town, consisting, according again to its own application, of some 69 bands with 3000 participants, practically the population of the whole of Castlederg.

A spokesman for the residents blamed the British commission for destroying years of painstaking work to build trust between the communities in Castlederg.

‘Both communities have quietly and effectively been building a rapport with each other in recent years to try and help us co-operate. A fragile relationship had been established between community groups and we were starting to talk to each other. But the simple act of breaking a promise has put all that hard work in jeopardy and that is what angers residents most.

4. LVF HOLD NATIONALIST CHILDREN AT GUNPOINT IN RAID FOR ARMS

Members of the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) held two nationalist children and their babysitter hostage while they stole six legally held weapons from their parents’ home.

The incident took place in April in the Finaghy area of south Belfast while the children’s parents were on a night out.

It is understood that details of the incident were not released at the time following a request from the family.

An LVF gang, led by a top loyalist from the Ballysillan area, tied up the babysitter and children before stealing three rifles, two shotguns and a pistol from the property. This was the second time the babysitter had been targeted by a loyalist death squad. The Ulster Defence Association murdered her husband in the 1990s.

After stealing the weapons, the LVF gang escaped in a car, which was later, found abandoned in the Ligoniel area of north Belfast.
The gun theft was reported to the RUC\PSNI.

Since the July 1 renewal of the LVF’s feud with the rival Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), LVF gangs have attempted to confiscate a number of other legally held weapons from their owners.
This has resulted in one person being seriously injured.

A number of men with strong LVF connections are members of a well-known northern gun club.
According to well-placed sources, they have been giving the names and addresses of other gun club members to the LVF, which has been calling to the innocent gun owner’s homes demanding the weapons.

An LVF gang has ordered the owner of legally-held weapons in the Bests Hill area of south Belfast to hand them over to the organisation.

The latest loyalist feud between the UVF and LVF has so far claimed four lives - Jameson Lockhart, Craig McCausland, Stephen Paul and Michael Green.

All of the men were murdered by the UVF.

The LVF blinded and seriously wounded David Hanley in a north Belfast gun attack on July 11. David Hanley has no paramilitary connections.

There have also been numerous gun and bomb attacks and riots throughout Belfast.
A number of families have been forced to flee their homes.

The British colonial police’s handling of the feud has drawn criticism from the families of those murdered.

5. HUNGER STRIKE AT GUANTANAMO

Scores of detainees at the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba began a hunger strike a hunger strike at the end of August, human rights lawyers have said.
The prisoners, many of whom have been held for more than three years without charge, are believed to be demanding an immediate trial or release.

Lawyers for the detainees say about 200 are refusing all food.
A hunger strike in July ended when the Pentagon agreed to talk to inmates.
The prisoners have now restarted that action, accusing officials of reneging on their promise to negotiate, amid allegations of mistreatment.

The lawyers say one prisoner has written a will in anticipation of starving to death.
Gitanjali Gutierrez, of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, representing some of Guantanamo’s 500 or so prisoners, said the Pentagon had denied them proper legal access.

The policy had “driven detainees to strike until they die or are afforded a fair hearing and humane treatment”; he told the AFP news agency.
The Pentagon has said only 76 detainees are refusing food, not the 200 claimed by the lawyers, but has not said when the protest began.
During the previous hunger strike, the prisoners were monitored by medical professionals and admitted to hospital where necessary.

6. SHELL REFUSES TO WAIVE ROSSPORT FIVE INJUNCTION

ON September 2 Shell rejected calls to waive a High Court order in a bid to secure the release of five men jailed for protesting against the company’s controversial gas pipeline in Mayo.

The company said it had already made a number of concessions to the Rossport men and could not consider asking for the injunction to be lifted.

A spokesman for Shell said work had been halted both on the onshore and offshore sections of the line from the Corrib gas field. He also claimed 220 workers had been laid off as a result of the delay in works.

He said this had given the men the perfect opportunity to purge their contempt, which the President of the High Court had suggested.

“SEPIL has already made a number of concessions such that there is no reason for the men to remain in prison,” Shell said in a statement.

“The President of the High Court has stated that the ready solution to freeing the imprisoned men would be for them to purge their contempt of the High Court order. The company continues to explore all other possible avenues that would allow them to do so.”

Opposition party leaders, Pat Rabbitte of the Labour Party and Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny, had called on lawyers on both sides to examine previous cases were an injunction had been lifted or contempt purged.

But Shell said while their legal team would meet with the men’s lawyers to discuss a possible way forward the injunction had been granted in order to protect work in the future.

“The injunction is necessary in the event of any party obstructing our work at some future date, even if the current concerns of the landowners are addressed,” the company statement went on.

“It is precisely for this reason that SEPIL cannot consider waiving the injunction or the protection which it affords the company in the future.”

Shell said case history had been examined in a bid to reach a compromise. But lawyers for the company said they did not see sufficient parallels with the Corrib gas pipeline dispute.

7. COUNCIL DECISION ‘WRONG’

IN A statement on August 25 Republican Sinn Féin Vice-President Des Dalton said that the decision of Athy Town Council to open a ‘book of condolence’ for the late Mo Mowlam, former British Si- County Secretary, was wrong for a number of reasons.
He said: “Firstly Mo Mowlam served in Ireland as the senior administrator of British rule in Ireland. Secondly, her role here was specifically to entice the nationalist community into accepting the continued British occupation of part of Ireland, and to go even further by recruiting them into the apparatus of British rule in Ireland by administering it.
“All of these things need to be seen in the round, whatever one may think of Mo Mowlam as a person, her political legacy regarding Ireland is that she was central to the attempts to copper fasten Britain’s claim to sovereignty over part of our country.”

ENDS

Guardian

Catholics forced to flee as teenagers are used to mount campaign of arson

Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent
Tuesday September 6, 2005
The Guardian

It began late one night when Kathleen McCaughey’s front door was kicked down by two men who stormed up the stairs shouting: “Taigs out.”

“Aren’t you going to call me an Orange bastard?” asked one of the men when Mrs McCaughey, 51, who has epilepsy, came out of her bedroom in her dressing gown.

After five months of attacks including petrol and paint bombs and a poster campaign calling her a republican scrounger, she was given a few hours to clear her house and leave the village of Ahoghill in Ian Paisley’s North Antrim constituency.

Protestant children had been paid £5 each to sit on her front lawn banging drums until she caved in. If she did not go, she was told, her row of houses would be burned down.

The town of Ballymena and its surrounding villages are in the grip of the worst wave of anti-Catholic sectarian attacks for years and the police have been forced to adopt the same tactics as the UN uses in Kosovo: guarding Catholic churches, schools and Gaelic sports clubs at night to stop them being torched.

Northern Ireland is slipping into the kind of civil strife where people cannot tolerate the presence of their neighbours, and it is being demonstrated at primary schools. Two Catholic schools in the area were burned in arson attacks within 24 hours last week. The head of Northern Ireland’s community relations council has said the police patrols are unsustainable, adding that many people would soon start to feel they could only live in Ballymena with UN-style protection.

Ballymena is the buckle in Northern Ireland’s Bible belt, the seat of the Paisley family and a place that has been likened to 1960s Mississippi. It is rural, conservative, mainly born-again Christian and predominantly Protestant. Catholics make up about 25% of the borough.

Ballymena’s most famous Catholic son, the actor Liam Neeson, has recalled having to shelter inside during Orange parades in his youth.

But Mr Paisley, leader of the biggest unionist party in Northern Ireland, was criticised for not condemning the anti-Catholic attacks soon enough and doing little to engage with his community to stop them.

Mr Paisley, who has always talked about his unbiased dedication to the Catholics in his constituency, was accused of moral cowardice and a lack of leadership. He returned from holiday and condemned the attacks last week but complained that, in the past, attacks on his church headquarters in Belfast had not been condemned by Sinn Féin.

Mark Durkan, the SDLP’s leader, accused loyalist paramilitaries from the Ulster Defence Association of orchestrating sectarian violence in north Antrim.

Police said it was more complex than a coordinated campaign against Catholics, adding that teenagers and young boys had been involved. A 13-year-old boy has been charged with arson following last week’s attack on St Louis’ primary school which destroyed one classroom and damaged 10 others. A 15-year-old is also being questioned. Police have recorded 28 significant attacks against Catholics, including two attempted murders, and 14 attacks against Protestants.

In Ahoghill, a village of about 1,000 people where most of the attacks on Catholics took place, red, white and blue flags fly on the grey estates.

There are scorch marks on the house of Mrs McCaughey’s niece, who was forced on to her roof when it was set ablaze in a sectarian petrol bomb attack.

Fewer than a dozen Catholic families remain and for-sale signs have gone up outside Catholic homes.

Many have sent word via their Protestant neighbours to their tormentors on the estate that they are considering leaving.

Just as in other villages nearby, where police have been protecting 50 Catholic properties, sectarianism has reached the level where bigots are unafraid to state their views but those opposed to them are afraid to speak out.

One of Mrs McCaughey’s Protestant neighbours saved her house from being burned down by chasing a petrol bomber down the street in his underpants. He later received two bullets in the post.

Mrs McCaughey, who plays the Gaelic game of camogie, is half Protestant. “My mother was from [Belfast’s] Shankill Road, she was as orange as your boot, she was in every lodge going,” she said.

Like most of her siblings she married a Protestant but mixed blood makes no difference in the latest sectarian purge.

“I said I wouldn’t shift for anybody,” she said. “But it just got to me. I’ve lived here all my life and I had never had trouble until this summer.”

In the nearby, predominantly Protestant, suburb of Harryville, the Catholic church has been repeatedly paint bombed and daubed with slogans such as “Fuck the Pope” over the summer.

A group of local Protestants have helped clean the mess at the church, which was picketed regularly by loyalists over 18 months during the Drumcree dispute of the 1990s.

St Mary’s Catholic primary school in Harryville reopened last week after five petrol bombs were thrown into the canteen and library causing £1,000 worth of damage.

A report by the Institute for Conflict Research shows that following the Good Friday Agreement in 1997, sectarian violence has increased, with more attacks on churches, Gaelic sports clubs and Orange halls than before the ceasefires of 1994.

There have been sectarian attacks on both side of the divide in north and east Belfast throughout the summer.

Dennis Bradley, the former Catholic priest who brokered the first ceasefire and is now a member of the policing board, said police alone could not solve the problem of the sectarian attacks, which he blamed on the “nihilism of 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds” and “20- and 30-year-olds who are quite sectarian in the sense that they cannot live with their neighbours”.

Other research recently has shown that children as young as five or six are displaying bigoted ideas.

A generation is growing up more segregated and sectarian than its parents.

How the attacks began

March

Campaign of intimidation against Catholic families in village of Ahoghill begins. Police investigating a firework attack on a Catholic home are pelted with bricks and stones.

July

Two Catholic churches in Ballymena area are paint-bombed and daubed with sectarian graffiti, in the first of a series of church attacks over the summer. Two Catholic-owned pubs attacked, another bar is petrol-bombed. After petrol and paint bombs and arson threats, Catholic families in Ahoghill begin leaving their homes. One woman is forced on to her roof after the ground floor of her home set alight in arson attack.

August

In an unprecedented move, police issue fire blankets to Catholic homes in Ahoghill and tell residents how to jump out of windows in case of sectarian arson attacks.

September

After two arson attacks in 24 hours on Catholic primary schools in the Ballymena area, police begin night-time guard of Catholic schools, churches and properties in local villages. Police say they have recorded 28 significant sectarian attacks on Catholics and 14 on Protestants since March 1.

Sinn Féin

Published: 5 September, 2005

Sinn Féin MLA Mitchel McLaughlin has said that it is important that everyone eligible to vote returns a registration form to the Electoral Office.

Mr McLaughlin said:

“Registration forms are currently being distributed to all people currently on the previous register. However I would appeal to all those who do not receive a form to contact the Electoral Office to ensure that they get on the new register being compiled.

“Sinn Féin has fought hard to have the legislation brought in at the behest of the SDLP and other political party’s rescinded to ensure that everyone has the basic right to vote.

“Registration is an important part of the process of claiming your vote and everyone should return a form. It is also important to know that anyone over 17 years of age can register even though they are ineligible to vote until they are 18.

“If anyone has any queries about registering to vote then they should contact their local Sinn Féin office or the Electoral Office.” ENDS

Sinn Féin

Published: 5 September, 2005

Sinn Féin Councillor for Upper Falls Paul Maskey has today condemned an attack upon the Republican plot at Milltown Cemetery as ‘an attack upon Ireland’s patriot dead’.

The Republican plot was damaged in an overnight attack where personal items and plaques were broken in the attack.

Speaking today Mr Maskey said:

“I want to condemn the vicious anti-social behaviour in Milltown Cemetery yesterday evening. This mindless attack on the Republican plot is a clear attack upon Ireland‚s patriot dead. The attack will no doubt come as a shock to the friends and families of those buried in Milltown.

“It remains unclear if this wanton vandalism is the work of local thugs or youths. However, republicans will be determined to restore the plot to its former condition as a tribute to the memory of those who rest there.” ENDS

BreakingNews.ie

05/09/2005 - 18:12:10

The campaign to decide the name of Dingle in Co Kerry has stepped up a gear.

Residents of the town are displaying car stickers with the cliché: ‘If it aint broken, why fix it?’ in Irish in support of changing the title from An Daingean back to English.

Kerry County Council will hold a referendum in the area by the end of the year when locals will vote on the controversial name change.

The story has even crossed the Atlantic where it made the front page of the New York Times.