Republican News · Thursday 22 November 2001

Threats to Derry building workers

The PSNI/RUC on Tuesday today visited over 40 building sites in and around Derry city to warn of a serious threat to Catholic workers from loyalist paramilitaries. The majority of the workers are on Housing Executive contracts working to upgrade public housing stock. The threat comes just over a week after the attempted murder of a building worker in the Waterside area of Derry and an early morning gun attack on another Catholic worker waiting for a lift to work in Clady, Co Antrim. A PSNI/RUC spokesperson, Stuart Tosh, warned Catholic workers to be vigilant.

Tosh, then a Superintendent, was one of those who attended the scene of the 1991 murder of Tyrone man Patrick Shanahan by loyalist paramilitaries. The case was one of those recently highlighted in a European Court decision which upheld the claim that the state had failed to carry out a thorough and effective investigation and was thus guilty of violation of the European Convention, the 'right to life' article. A local priest and doctor were denied access to the dying man. This occurred before Tosh arrived on the scene of the ambush.

Sinn Féin Assembly member for Derry Mary Nelis just last week raised the intimidation of workers in the Assembly after Catholics working in the loyalist Fountain area were threatened.