Republican News · Thursday 25 July 2002

Young man killed as loyalist violence escalates

BY LAURA FRIEL

Gerard Lawlor

A Catholic teenager was shot dead, a Catholic man was seriously injured and a number of other Catholics narrowly escaped death in five separate shooting incidents. Two Catholic men were viciously beaten and stabbed.

A Catholic woman and her children were almost burnt alive when the car they were travelling was set alight. Two Catholic brothers lost everything when their home was engulfed during a petrol bomb attack.

In the last three months, there have been 363 attacks against Catholics. In other words, on average there have been four sectarian attacks against Catholics every day since May. There have been 144 bomb attacks, 25 shooting incidents, 151 homes damaged, 42 people assaulted and one killing.

In Belfast, the escalation of loyalist violence continued last week with loyalist paramilitaries particularly targeting vulnerable nationalist areas in the North of the city.

In Ardoyne, four days of sustained loyalist attack on Catholic homes in Alliance Avenue began around 5.30pm on Wednesday, 17 July. For almost six hours, Catholic homes were attacked with bricks and bottles, paint and petrol bombs.

The home of one young Catholic family was paint bombed 17 times on Wednesday night alone. Gerard Russell said he was afraid to let his five-year-old son step outside the door.

"Ever since the loyalist blockade of Holy Cross primary school we have been living in fear but the last few days have been a complete nightmare," he said.

Two Catholic men were viciously beaten by a loyalist mob in the Oldpark area of North Belfast. A 37-year-old North Belfast Catholic was attacked by a loyalist gang as he walked home around midnight on Wednesday.

The man, who had been celebrating his birthday, was dragged into a deserted cul-de-sac in the loyalist end of the Oldpark Road and viciously beaten.

"They knew I was a Catholic. I thought they were going to kill me. I feel lucky to be alive," he said.

In a sustained sectarian attack, the loyalist gang of four beat their victim with a baseball bat and tried to stab him in the stomach. The victim, who was left bleeding and unconscious, required 35 staples to his head at the nearby Mater Hospital.

Within hours of the attack, a loyalist gang in the Oldpark Road area attacked a second Catholic man. The father of three was attacked around 2am in the early hours of Thursday morning as he walked with a friend along Rosapenna Street, a predominantly Catholic area of the Oldpark Road.

The victim said a car carrying four men drew up and two of the passengers got out. One of the assailants said, "You're dead you Fenian bastards". The man was stabbed in the right upper arm. The gaping eight-inch wounded required emergency surgery. "If they‚re driving around in cars with knives then they're intent on doing one thing and one thing only," he said.

Later that day, a Catholic mother and her three young children were trapped in their burning car after the vehicle was attacked by a 60-strong loyalist mob.

It was 11pm on Thursday night when Pauline Moore was driving on the Upper Crumlin Road. In the car were her three children, twelve-year-old Paula, Joseph (11) and Mark (6). "There was no rioting, there was hardly another car on the road, they just saw the car and attacked it," said Pauline. The windscreen was smashed and the vehicle pelted with petrol bombs.

"The car was on fire and I was shouting to the children to get down. All I could think about was the three Quinn children. I didn't want the same thing to happen to my children. They wanted to kill us. We could have burnt to death in that car," she said.

Richard (10) Mark (9) and eight-year-old Jason Quinn were burnt alive after loyalists petrol bombed their Ballymoney home at the height of the Drumcree protest in 1998.

The attack on the Moore family occurred as loyalists simultaneously targeted Catholic homes in three parts of North Belfast. Over 20 homes were attacked in Ligoniel, Deerpark and Alliance Avenue. A number of people were treated in hospital.

Loyalists in the Glenbryn area of Ardoyne pelted Catholic homes in Alliance Avenue with petrol bombs. The attack followed an earlier incident in which loyalists from Glenbryn had hurled missiles, breaking windows and damaging cars.

Television footage of the earlier attack showed loyalists in Glenbryn on the roofs of derelict house throwing missiles over the peaceline. A Catholic man and woman sustained facial and head injuries during the bombardment and were taken to hospital.

The attack stopped for a number of hours only to resume around 11pm, when more than a dozen petrol bombs were thrown from Glenbryn at Catholic homes in Alliance Avenue.

"These attacks are not being carried out by children. They are being carried out by men, UDA men," said local Sinn Féin Councillor Margaret McClenaghan.

Fearing they would be targeted by the loyalist mob, firemen at the scene were unable to enter the back gardens to extinguish the petrol bombs.

At the same time, Catholic homes in the Ligoniel Road area of North Belfast came under attack from a 50-strong loyalist mob. During a sustained 30-minute attack, the homes of ten Catholic families were targeted by the mob.

Two brothers, Jonathan (23) and 24-year-old Michael Graham fled from their ground floor flat, clambering over fences to escape the machete and baton-wielding mob.

"We made our way out of the back. When we turned round we saw our flat in flames," said Jonathan. "It's the first Catholic-occupied house on the road. It was an easy target for them. I've no doubt they would have killed anyone they got their hands on."

The Graham brothers, who recently moved back to Belfast after living in the 26 counties for 12 years, lost everything but the clothes they were wearing in the fire.

A second Catholic family, a couple with young children, escaped injury when a petrol bomb thrown at a bedroom window exploded but failed to break the glass.

other resident described lying down against the front door in a desperate attempt to stop the loyalist mob forcing their way into his home.

"When I heard the window smashing, I jumped on the floor to protect the children. The loyalists started trying to kick in the front door. I lay down in front of the door and tried to keep them out," he said

Moments later two shots were fired. "I don‚t know if they fired at the house. All I know is that these people wanted to kill a Catholic."

A Catholic family whose Deerpark home was one of several to come under loyalist attack on Thursday night described their 'living hell'. Since the family move into the house two years ago, loyalists have attacked it 17 times.

"The latest attack came on Thursday night when loyalists broke our windows and the windows of two other houses in the street," said the resident.

The family is unable to move because no one wants to buy their house and the NIO are refusing to include the family in their Special Purchase of Evacuated Dwellings scheme because the attacks are not classified as intimidation, only vandalism.

"We're living on our nerves; no one can sleep at night because you don't know if you will be alive in the morning," he said.

Loyalists attacked two ambulance crews and several paramedics were injured when they attempted to drive into Catholic areas to attend the injured. One paramedic was knocked unconscious when he was struck on the head by a brick. Another paramedic needed glass removed from his eyes after the loyalist mob smashed the windscreen of the ambulance.

RUC/PSNI offer no protection

A Catholic family of four narrowly escaped injury when they awoke to find their Skegoniel Avenue home on fire after a petrol bomb attack. They had initially been targeted by a loyalist mob around 2am in the early hours of Saturday morning. The family's car was one of nine Catholic-owned cars smashed and torched by the mob. Three vehicles were completely burnt out, two in Skegoniel Aveune and a third in nearby Glandore Avenue.

The mob returned three hours later with petrol bombs. The Catholic couple carried their three-year-old twin sons from the blazing building. The family were forced to make their escape on foot because their car had already been destroyed.

The father later questioned the role of the PSNI/RUC, who he said had promised to stay in the area after the first attack but were absent when the loyalists returned.

On the same night, Catholic homes in the Rosapenna area of North Belfast also came under loyalist attack. Windows were smashed and cars damaged in the second of two attacks in the area in as many days.

Meanwhile, Ardoyne was facing a fourth day of sustained loyalist attack, with families living along Alliance Avenue bearing the brunt of loyalist bombardment. John Manley, a journalist for the Irish News, reported witnessing more than 20 large bricks being thrown by loyalists at one home during the short time it had taken him to interview the family.

At around 7pm on Sunday night, a number of shots were fired from Ardoyne into Glenbryn, injuring a 19-year-old loyalist near the alleyway from where the attacks on Alliance Avenue had mostly emanated. The teenager was rushed to hospital, where his condition was described as ill but stable.

Within the following five hours, loyalist gunmen launched five separate sectarian gun attacks, culminating in the killing of a 19-year-old Catholic in the Whitewell area of North Belfast.

Gerard Lawlor

Gerard Lawlor was walking home after spending an evening with friends in Glengormley at the Bellevue Arms. The teenager was shot dead in a drive-by shooting less than 200 yards from his own front door. Residents reported hearing four or five gunshots around midnight on Floral Street close to the Whitewell Road.

Gerard, who was wearing a Celtic football shirt, had been easily identified as a Catholic by his killers as he made his way into Whitewell, a Catholic enclave in a predominantly loyalist part of North Belfast. He died at the scene.

Gerard had been due to move house with his partner Siobhan and the couple's 18-month-old son Josh within days. The victim's parents were on holiday in Newcastle when they were informed of their son's death.

initial statement claiming responsibility for the killing was issued under the cover name of the Red Hand Defenders, but the UDA later admitted they had carried out the fatal shooting.

Three masked and armed loyalists appeared on camera to read a chilling message threatening further sectarian violence. The UDA described the sectarian killing of Gerard Lawlor as a "measured military response" and claimed it was 'retaliation' for "the onslaught against the Protestant community by the republican gunmen".

A midfield player for the local St Enda's GAC, Gerard Lawlor was the fourth member of the club to be killed by loyalists within the last ten years. Liam Canning was shot dead by an off duty UDR member in 1981. Sean Fox, a 72-year-old widower, was tortured before being shot dead by the UVF in 1993. Gerry Devlin was shot dead by the LVF as he arrived at the club in 1997.

Gavin Brett, a 19-year-old killed by loyalists in the mistaken belief he was a Catholic, was talking to friends outside St Enda's when he was shot dead in July 2001. Gerard had known both Gavin Brett and 20-year-old Catholic postman Daniel McColgan, shot dead by loyalists earlier this year.

Less than an hour before the Lawlor killing on Sunday night, another Catholic sustained gunshot wounds in a loyalist attack. 29-year-old Jason O Halloran was shot in both legs and groin. Shots were fired from a dark car travelling down Rosapenna Avenue towards Cliftonville Road. At the same time, a loyalist gunman on Oldpark Road fired around ten rounds. At 10.45pm a dark car had approached a group of residents in the Catholic Ligoniel Road and a gunman opened fire. Cartridges and live rounds were later found at the scene.

Fifteen minutes earlier, in another sectarian murder bid, a loyalist gunman, riding as a passenger on a motorbike, pulled a gun on a young man standing outside Henry Joy's, a Catholic-owned bar on the Oldpark Road. The gun jammed and the motorcycle sped away.

In Salisbury Avenue, two loyalist gunmen at around 10pm had targeted two young Catholic men. Two shots were fired but no one was injured.

Kelly responds

"It is obvious to everyone that there have been ongoing sectarian attacks over the last two years by loyalist against Catholics," said North Belfast Assembly member Gerry Kelly.

"This campaign has involved 400 gun and bomb attacks, which have resulted in the deaths of five people in North Belfast and the surrounding areas alone.

"In the last two weeks, there has been an escalation and spreading of these attacks by the UDA. On Sunday night there were four sectarian murder attempts culminating in the killing of Gerard Lawlor.

"The pattern of attacks clearly shows that the UDA are intent on creating new interfaces and more areas of danger for the nationalist community. David Trimble and other unionists need to realise that in creating a crisis in the peace process and in threatening the collapse of the institutions, loyalists will follow with sectarian attacks. They know that this leads to very tragic consequences for Catholics living in vulnerable and isolated areas."