Republican News · Thursday 22 August 2002

Ardoyne Catholics escape UDA gun attack

A Catholic family of five and a pensioner escaped serious injury on Tuesday night, 20 August, after the UDA sprayed their homes with gunfire just hours after the Red Hand Defenders (RHD), widely accepted as a cover name for the UDA, threatened to target North Belfast Catholics.

A woman and her 15-year-old were taken to hospital suffering from severe shock as seven shots hit the front of her Alliance Avenue home, with another bullet going through the bathroom window of a pensioner's home, causing flooding in the house after it hit a water tank.

The homeowner said that one bullet came through the front window and struck the wall inches from were his wife was sitting. "My wife and my son had to be taken to hospital they were badly shocked; these kind of attacks are happening every day now, there were no houses in Glenbryn attacked it is just another pretext to attack innocent Catholics."

Sinn Féin councillor for North Belfast Margaret McClenaghan said she knows the UDA are behind all these attacks on the Ardoyne area: "They use this lame excuse that homes in Glenbryn are being attacked - this is nonsense - all the attacks are coming from Glenbryn, we have people here who are very lucky to be alive. We have had bolts and golf balls thrown at these houses all day with members of the RUC/PSNI sitting here from 10am but all of a sudden they move, ten minutes before these homes are shot at. Questions have to be asked."

The woman was released from hospital only to be admitted again later on that night.

The RHD said that Catholics would be attacked by military means if houses in the Glenbryn estate were attacked. "These people don't want peace; issuing threats like this one and carrying them out hours later doesn't sound like a no first strike policy to me," added McCleneghan.