Loyalists kill Catholic woman
SF raises links with McGoldrick killing
Following the sectarian murder of a young Catholic woman in a
house in Aghalee, a Sinn Féin councillor has asked whether
forensic or ballistic evidence points to a link with the murder
of Michael McGoldrick, a Catholic taxi-driver who was killed not
far from Aghalee during the Drumcree stand off last year.
``The RUC should release forensic or ballistic evidence which
might link the two murders,'' said Craigavon Sinn Féin Councillor
John O'Dowd.
18 year old Bernadette Martin was shot four times in the head in
the early hours of Tuesday morning 15 July and died hours later
in the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. The killing was almost
certainly carried out by the Loyalist Volunteer Force.
The young woman from Pinebank in Craigavon was staying overnight
in her boyfriend's house in the small County Antrim village
bordering County Armagh when a lone gunman entered through the
unlocked back door at about 4am and shot her in the head as she
lay in bed.
Friends of the dead woman have reported that in recent weeks she
was subjected to verbal sectarian abuse and had warned her
against travelling to Aghalee.
Bernadette Martin was the eldest girl in a family of six and had
been going out with her boyfriend, whom she met in work, for
about a year. She had left her Craigavon home on Monday evening
for a night out with her boyfriend and decided to stay over in
his family home on Soldierstown Road in Aghalee. After the
shooting she was rushed to Craigavon Area hospital before being
brought to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast where she
eventually died.
In a follow up operation the RUC arrested a man, from a well
known loyalist family, in the Coronation Gardens area about 500
yards from the scene of the shooting.
So far no group has admitted responsibility for the attack, but
An Phoblacht has been told that Aghalee and its hinterland is a
loyalist area with strong UVF links. With the split in the UVF
over the activities of its Mid-Ulster Brigade, which broke away
to form the LVF, the allegiance of those UVF personnel in the
Aghalee area also changed.
The LVF has been active in recent times and have carried out
numerous attacks on Catholics. The killing of South Derry GAA
stalwart Sean Brown was the last killing carried out by the group
until Tuesday's shooting.
The body of Michael McGoldrick, who was shot dead by the
Mid-Ulster Brigade of the UVF during last year's Drumcree crisis
was found in the Aghalee area. McGoldrick's killing was one of
the factors which led to the UVF split and expulsion of the
notorious UVF killer King Rat.
Also in the week before this year's Orange march at Drumcree a
van was found burned out near the village. Republicans from North
Armagh told An Phoblacht that they suspected the LVF were
involved in the incident and that they had to abort an attack an
a nationalist target.
·
Councillor O'Dowd called for ``calm and vigilance'' following the
killing. He also attacked the British government's double
standards. ``Last week loyalist gunmen paraded on the streets of
Belfast; one senior UDA/UFF figure was killed in an explosion;
threats and intimidation from loyalists are widespread, and yet
the British government has no difficulty meeting their political
representatives.
``Sinn Féin has no wish to see the loyalist parties excluded from
talks but the double standards so apparent in British policy
subvert efforts to rebuild the peace process.''
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