Sectarian attacks continue
BY LAURA FRIEL
Sectarian attacks continued across the north this week.
On Monday, a 12-year-old Catholic schoolboy was attacked by three youths in South Belfast. The incident happened at the junction of Rosetta Road and Wynchurch Road at 8.40pm. The boy was approached by the three youths and questioned about his religion before being beaten.
On the same night, two Catholic homes on the outskirts of Glengormley, North Belfast, were targeted when devices containing fireworks were thrown at the rear of houses in the predominantly loyalist Mossvale Road near Corrs Corner at 9.30pm and 10.50pm. A third suspect device was later declared a hoax.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, a bus returning from Slaughtneil GAA club, the venue of a weekly disco, to Bellaghy, was pelted with bottles and stones. The attack took place as the bus carrying young people passed a loyalist area in Maghera. Several windows were broken but no one was injured.
In an act of sectarian vandalism in Randalstown, a vehicle belonging to a Catholic family living in the Glenkeen area was damaged when two petrol bombs were thrown into it.
Meanwhile, a pipe bomb attack on a pub in Garvagh has been linked to restrictions placed on an Apprentice Boys march by the Parades Commission. Coleraine mayor John Dallat claimed that loyalists had planted the device after feeder parades and the main parade in Derry was warned to control drunken behaviour during the parades.
Catholic residents in Bombay Street in West Belfast, who have been persistently targeted by loyalists for attack, are furious that planning delays are preventing them from moving to a safer location. Over ten families are scheduled to be rehoused in a new development in Springfield Road but planning permission for the site has yet to be granted.
During the most recent sectarian attack last Tuesday night, a number of petrol bombs and stones were thrown across the peaceline from the loyalist side of Cupar's Way.
The UDA are behind a series of attacks in lower Lenadoon, says Sinn Féin Councillor Gerard O'Neill. In one of the most serious incidents, which took place last Monday night, a 40-year-old man was attacked by hammer-wielding loyalists.
Liam McKenna was walking home along the Suffolk Road when he was jumped from behind and hit on the head with a hammer. The stricken man was lying face down in a puddle when a passerby discovered him. Left for dead by the mob, Liam had lain unconscious for over two hours before being found.
Liam was rushed to hospital where doctors discovered his temperature to be dangerously low. The injured man was told he was just four degrees away from getting hypothermia. He remained in hospital for five days recovering from injuries that included hammer blows to his back and head.
Days later, residents in the nearby Doon Road were woken when loyalists from the Suffolk estate, armed with hammers, went on the rampage in the nationalist Lower Lenadoon, smashing cars and terrifying local people. The gang later fled towards the loyalist Blacks Road.
Loyalists again targeted Holy Cross Catholic Primary School, North Belfast, when a suspicious device was discovered outside the school gates. The device was discovered at around 11am on Thursday. It was later declared a hoax.A pipe bomb discovered in Newtownstewart by a man walking his dog was defused.
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