Intimidation and attacks
Orange Volunteers target Antrim pub
The Orange Volunteers attacked the Ramble Inn in south Antrim on
Wednesday night, 28 April, with a pipe bomb, the same pub where six
people were killed by loyalists in 1976. The device exploded outside
the pub around 11 pm.
South Antrim Sinn Féin representative Meehan said that Orange
Volunteer activity has greatly increased in the South Antrim area
over the past three months.
Meanwhile, An Phoblacht has learned of the loyalist targeting of an
Antrim Sinn Féin activist on the Rathenraw estate. The area around
his home was sealed off following the discovery of a suspect device
underneath his car on Sunday morning, 2 April.
South Derry nationalists must be vigilant
Two men, brothers from the Ballinderry area, were visited by RUC
members on Friday, 30 April, who told them that letters addressed to
each of them were intercepted at the Post Office Sorting Office, both
containing a .38 bullet and a note from the Orange Volunteers saying:
``The next one is for you.''
Sinn Féin's Mid-Ulster Assembly member John Kelly said that there
have been five physical attacks in the South Derry area since
Christmas and increased intimidation by both the RUC and loyalist
death squads. He said that two weeks ago a family was visited by the
RUC in Swatragh, also South Derry, and told that their lives were in
imminent danger. The RUC returned the next day with their own leaflet
on intimidation and asked ``Have you not moved yet?''
RUC target Armagh men
Two men from Armagh have publicly accused the RUC of attempting to
intimidate them into becoming informers.
Nineteen-year-old Damien Renaghan from Keady said he was approached
18 months ago and again on a number of occasions in the last two
weeks and offered money to report on ``people who were organising
marches and protests'' in the town. He reported the recruitments to
Sinn Féin councillor Brian Cunningham and has lodged a complaint
through his solicitor.
Patrick O'Connor from Armagh was first approached last November in
Armagh leisure centre by two men in plainclothes who identified
themselves as members of the RUC. O'Connor was then phoned at home
after Christmas and offered a ``five-figure sum'' to meet police in
Glasgow before a Celtic match. He was then repeatedly phoned at home
and on his mobile phone.
Newry death threat
A Newry man who has been told by the RUC that loyalists are planning
to kill him has accused the RUC of collusion. The man, who does not
wish to be named, said that the RUC photographed his home and drew
diagrams of its layout in the early hours of Thursday, 22 April. The
following Wednesday night, 28 April, the RUC delivered the loyalist
death threat and warned him to take it seriously.
The man has complained to his solicitor about the ``highly suspicious''
threat emerging after the RUC had monitored his movements and
photographed his house. He has also complained to his solicitor about
being regularly followed by RUC patrols.
Lurgan death threats
Lurgan man Paul Gillespie has told An Phoblacht that he was visited
by the RUC at his home on the Kilwilkee estate late on Wednesday
night, 28 April, and ``notified that my name and details of my home
and car are presently in the hands of loyalists''.
Gillespie, who currently has a case pending against RUC chief Ronnie
Flanagan arising from an RIR assault, added that he was also
subjected to continual harassment by the RIR and that at the
beginning of April the RIR took a personal diary during a search of
his car that they claimed they were still holding to carry out
forensic tests. Two other men also living on the Kilwilkee estate
were also visited by the RUC on the same night and warned of loyalist
death threats.
Compensation for plastic bullet injuries
Two Belfast men and two men from Keady have been awarded a total of
£34,000 after they were injured by plastic bullets fired by the RUC
in July 1996. Kieran Killyleagh, who suffered kidney and rib damage
and was forced to miss the under-21 hurling championship final for
Antrim, was awarded £15,000. Over £370,000 compensation has now been
awarded to people who have been injured by plastic bullets fired by
the RUC.
Unwelcome honeymoon approach
A Westmeath republican was forced to cut his honeymoon short after he
was three times approached by British agents asking him to become an
informer.
Tom Maxwell, from Mullingar, flew home from Cyprus with his wife ten
days early to escape the badgering operatives.
Four threatened in Fermanagh
Four people in Fermanagh, including two councillors, have received
death threats. Robin Martin, the Vice Chair of Fermanagh District
Council and his colleague, Brian McCaffery, along with two members of
the newtownbutler Residents' Association, were visited by the RUC on
Saturday, 1 May, and told that a phone call to the BBC in Belfast
from the Red Hand Defenders had named them as appearing on a `death
list'.
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