Republican News · Thursday 25 July 2002

Republicans relocate Belleek monument

Sinn Féin Assembly member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone Gerry McHugh has commended the families of the three IRA Volunteers commemorated on a Monument in Belleek, County Fermanagh after republicans in the county decided to relocate a memorial in their honour last week.

Said McHugh: "The families of the three volunteers, Joseph McManus, Antoine McGiolla Bhríde and Kieran Fleming and local republicans are to be commended for the sensitive and indeed difficult decision to relocate the IRA memorial in the town."

The Sinn Féin man explained that the decision to relocate the monument came after representations were made by the families of William Hassard and Frederick Love, two building contractors who worked for the Crown forces and who were shot dead by the IRA in Belleek in 1988.

In May this year, just weeks after the Memorial was unveiled, loyalists attacked it with a sledgehammer and on a second occasion poured paint over it.

"I would commend the families of the three Volunteers whose grief and pain has been largely ignored in all of this for taking this sensitive decision. I understand that the intention of local republicans is to remove and repair the monument and relocate it at another site in Belleek," said McHugh.

"It is Sinn Féin's belief that all issues of flags, emblems, commemorations and memorials should be dealt with in a sensitive and equal manner, there can be no hierarchy of victims."

Family confront attacker

A Catholic man and his son confronted a loyalist bomber moments after he threw a device at their Magherafelt home on Sunday 21 July.

Mary Donnelly said her youngest son had just left for Mass shortly before 10am on Sunday when she noticed a man acting suspiciously outside her Beechland home. "I was watching him because something was just not right," she said. "I didn't know what he had in his hand until he threw it."

The device, which turned out to be a large firework with nails attached, landed in the garden of the house. The family evacuated their home in case it exploded and the father and his son then confronted the loyalist and accused him of throwing the device.

Sinn Féin Assembly member John Kelly commended the family for their courage but advised other people not to put their lives in danger.

Loyalists attack new mother and baby

A young mother and her newborn baby boy were attacked by loyalists as they attended a doctors surgery on North Queen Street at the Tiger's Bay interface at 5.45pm on Tuesday 23 July.

The young woman's partner, who was with her, explained that the couple had just went into the doctors when two loyalist youths came in, aimed pellet guns at them and left. As the couple and their baby left the surgery to go home they were again confronted by a crowd of loyalists, who chased them with iron bars and baseball bats.

According to Sinn Féin councillor Gerard Brophy, "the loyalists sit around outside the doctor's surgery to see where people come from and if they come from the New Lodge then they see them as targets".

RUC/PSNI warn nationalists

Three men from the Markets area of South Belfast have been warned by the RUC/PSNI that their details are in the hands of the Red Hand Defenders.

South Belfast councillor and Mayor of Belfast Alex Maskey has said that everyone is well aware that the Red Hand Defenders is merely a cover name for the UDA and that republicans and nationalists have been under increased attack from the UDA over the past year.

Meehan refused firearm cert

trim Sinn Féin councillor Martin Meehan has had his application to carry a gun rejected in the High Court on Friday 19 July by Judge Kerr, despite numerous attempts on his and his family's lives.

Refusing the licence, Kerr cited Meehan's previous convictions.

Meehan said that all elected representatives should be treated the same but double standards were at work as unionists were still given 'carte blanche' to hold firearms certificate.

"I am under the key protection scheme yet I am still refused a firearms certificate," he said. "I and my family are under constant threat from loyalists, but this is a case of Sinn Féin still being treated as second class citizens. Thirteen Sinn Féin councillors have been killed and numerous wounded in the past but we are still refused a licence to protect ourselves."