Republican News · Thursday 31 January 2002

Loyalists force Catholics to flee Limavady

Nine Catholic families have moved out of their homes in the Edenmore Road and Anderson Crescent areas of Limavady in County Derry due to continuing loyalist intimidation.

There has been increased loyalist intmidation over the last two years, putting families under threat. In recent weeks, the UDA has erected union, loyalist and Israeli flags in the area, but it is the appearance of anti-Catholic graffiti on walls reading 'Taigs out' has left many Catholics living in the area feeling vulnerable.

As well as the nine families that have already moved, it is also believed another two families were forced to move last week after being told they were under threat.

One resident of the area said: "This area is becoming extremely dangerous for Catholics. Every year we ask for something to be done about the flags and as yet nothing has been done. This area is being turned into another loyalist ghetto."

A number of pipe bomb attacks against Catholic families in the town in recent years have been blamed on the UDA.

Meanwhile, nationalists throughout South Derry, particularly people living in Magherafelt, have been warned to be on their guard from loyalist pipe bombers.

Sinn Féin assembly member for the area John Kelly, speaking to An Phoblacht, said he has learned that the UVF, operating under the guise of the South Londonderry Protestant Volunteers (SLPV), are about to resume their bombing campaign.

The RUC/PSNI have also told people living in the area of a planned campaign of sectarian pipe bombings during the forthcoming marching season.

The SPLV have attacked GAA clubs, bars and numerous Catholic homes in a campaign spanning the last two years.

A number of people have been injured in these attacks, although luckily no one has died.

UDA target pensioner

80-year-old pensioner escaped serious injury when a UDA pipe bomb exploded at the door of her home in Broadway, West Belfast.

The sectarian attack was carried out at 3am on Thursday morning, 6 June. The window beside the door was blown in and the doorstep and door were damaged when the bomb, believed to have been thrown from a car, exploded. Eyewitnesses say the car was seen speeding off towards the nearby Village area of South Belfast, a UDA stronghold.

According to her daughter, the elderly woman was badly shocked by her ordeal and had to move out of her home to recover.

There have been upwards of 30 loyalist attacks on homes on Broadway all launched from the Village area, over the past 18 months.

In March 1997, John Slane, a Catholic father of ten, was shot dead when UDA gunmen burst into his Thames Court home, off Broadway. He was preparing bottles for his newly born twin daughters when the UDA gang burst in and shot him five times. The gang escaped towards the Village area.

Sinn Féin councillor for the area Tom Hartley said: "This is a deplorable attack on a Catholic pensioner; this area has seen its share of these sectarian attacks in the last few months, and it seems as if it is going to continue."

And an 82-year-old woman sustained injuries to her head after she was hit with a brick thrown by a loyalist from the Glenbryn estate in North Belfast. The woman was travelling from the city centre to her Alliance Avenue home on Monday 3 June when the missile came through the window.

The pensioner was struck with such force that she was knocked unconscious.

Memorial attack comes after unionist incitement

A new memorial dedicated to IRA Volunteer Tony Ahern was vandalised within days of a unionist councillor saying that republican memorials "should be blown out of existence".

The memorial, unveiled on Saturday 1 June at Mullnahinch in County Fermanagh, was attacked by loyalists on Thursday night, 6 June, at around 11.30pm.

Just 24 hours earlier, unionist councillor Cecil Noble's explosive comment had been reported in local newspapers.

Twenty litres of paint were poured over the memorial stone, but a number of local Sinn Féin members went to work immediately and were able to restore it.

Sinn Féin councillor Brian McCaffery said he would be sending a copy of the article carrying Cecil Noble's remarks, along with a letter, to the Director of Public Prosecutions seeking an investigation under incitement to hatred legislation.

This is only the latest attack on republican monuments following remarks made by unionist politicians.

Attacks have been carried out on memorials dedicated to Volunteers Antoin McGiolla Bhríde, Kieran Fleming and Joseph MacManus in Belleek County Fermanagh, while the memorial to Fergal O'Hanlon and Sean South at Altawalk, near Brookeborough, was also badly damaged when a car was reversed into it and set alight.