Republican News · Thursday 11 July 2002

Catholic family escapes gun attack

Five shots were fired through the living room of a Catholic family in Coleraine, County Derry on Monday night 8 July as they slept.

The man, his wife and their four children, aged 11 to 18, were in bed when loyalists fired through the living room window of their Quickthorn Place home in the staunchly loyalist Harpers Hill area of the town.

A petrol bomb thrown through the back window of the family car failed to ignite.

No one was injured but the family were traumatised. Last year a pipe bomb was thrown through the window of their home.

The family, who have lived in the area for over 30 years, are now thinking of moving.

In June, RUC/PSNI members fired shots in the air to disperse a crowd of up to 40 loyalists who chased two Catholic men through in the Somerset Drive area of the town.

Family with Catholic lodger petrol bombed

A Protestant family who had a Catholic man lodging with them escaped injury when two petrol bombs were hurled at their Stiles home in Antrim. The attack happened just after midnight on Wednesday 10 July.

The Catholic man had been burned out of his home on the Stiles Estate earlier this year. The devices were thrown at the window of the room where the man was sleeping. One hit the window frame and exploded causing minor damage while the other failed to ignite.

Later on Wednesday, as Sinn Féin councillors for Antrim Martin Meehan and Martin McManus met with the residents of the Stiles estate to discuss ongoing sectarian attacks, a car belonging to a member of the community association was rammed by two cars containing loyalists.