Loyalists step up activity in Derry
A laundry worker at Derry's Altnagelvin Hospital who received a
death threat on his clocking in card says he is being intimidated
because he is a Catholic.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he discovered the
threat when he arrived at work and it consisted of a picture of a
gun with the word `bang' written on it.
The worker also said that since the threat was reported to the
RUC two weeks ago, ``nothing has been done to find the culprit''.
Since the man discovered the threat, he has been off work because
of stress.
It is believed that as only employees of the hospital have access
to the cards, it may well be that a fellow worker is behind the
threat.
As the campaign against nationalists in Derry escalates, taxi
drivers have been specifically targeted and taxi firms are saying
that they may designate some areas of Derry as `no go' areas for
drivers.
In the latest attack, on Tuesday 4 September, a Catholic driver
was attacked in the Fountain area of the city. It was the third
attack on a Catholic driver in a week.
Sinn Féin's Maeve McLaughlin said the attacks support the belief
that ``there is an orchestrated campaign of sectarian attacks
against Catholic firms''.
In the Tullyalley estate in the Waterside, three attacks have
been carried out on Catholic firms in the past number of months.
These attacks on taxi drivers have come at a time when bomb
attacks on Catholics living in Derry, particularly the Clooney
estate, are on the increase.
Larne attacks
Since the start of the week, two sectarian attacks on Catholics
in Larne have left a man in his 40s in hospital with stab wounds
and a teenager beaten with iron bars.
At about 3.30pm on Monday, the Catholic man was walking in Larne
town centre when he was stabbed in the back. He was set upon by a
group of youths in Dunluce Street and stabbed a number of times
in the back.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, a 15-year-old youth had
been beaten by a gang using iron bars. The youth, who was with
his cousins, was targeted by the loyalist gang as they took their
dogs up the fields on the Old Glenarm Road near the Seacourt
estate.
The youth received four staples in a head wound.