Republican News · Thursday 1 November 2001

Savagely beaten by loyalists

Margaret Hale heard noises outside her Alexandra Avenue home in North Belfast at 6.20am on Sunday morning, 28 October. She thought someone may have been in trouble and, bravely, went out to see if she could help. Margaret lives just off the Limestone Road, a 'flashpoint area' in North Belfast where loyalists have been carrying out concentrated attacks on nationalists using pipe bombs and guns. She was certainly taking a risk in going out to investigate the disturbance.

As she went around the corner of her home, she was set upon by loyalists armed with cudgels and clubs studded with nails. Margaret was struck repeatedly about the head and body. The gang also kicked her about the head and jumped on her as she lay unconscious on the ground.

The beating was so vicious that she was barely recognisable to her family and friends. She suffered severe bruising to her head and face, received stitches to a wound on her forehead, had staples inserted in a wound on the top of her head and was treated for a number of broken ribs. A gash on Margaret's back may have been inflicted by a hatchet, as one of the loyalists, while he was assaulting the prone woman, was shouting to his accomplices "get the hatchet and I'll do her right".

"I heard the commotion outside and went to investigate as I thought someone might have been getting beat," said Margaret. "I went round the corner and just straight away they attacked me. I don't really remember that much as I was knocked out."

Margaret's partner, who doesn't want to be identified, then told how he went after Margaret and saw her lying on the ground, "I thought she was dead," he said. As he tried to rescue her, two loyalists jumped him. He shouted at the men that they were beating a woman. "One replied, 'fuck the fenian whore' then one of them shouted for the hatchet," he said. "To me they were out to murder someone. This was orchestrated, they planned this."

When he tried to reach her, he too was attacked and when he and a neighbour did get to Margaret, one of the gang lashed out with the hatchet, hitting the neighbour on the wrist.

The couple were critical of the RUC, saying "it took them a good while to arrive and when they did come on the scene the loyalists felt safe enough to hang around". Even when residents pointed out those responsible for the attack, the RUC refused to act. One RUC member dismissed them, claiming that "the ones that did this would be well away now".

Later that morning, a 22-year-old nationalist man received serious facial injuries when a pipe bomb thrown by loyalists exploded close to him on the Limestone Road. An Phoblacht understands Martin McGreevy has lost his upper lip and teeth in the explosion as well as other facial wounds.

Up to six other bombs were thrown during these disturbances on the Limestone Road.