Republican News · Thursday 20 June 2002

Loyalists attacks

Alliance councillor, Anglican minister and Catholic priest targeted

As loyalist violence spread throughout the North in the past week, so too has the list of those targeted widened. An Alliance Party councillor, Stewart Dickson, and a Church of Ireland clergyman, Earl Storey, both had their homes attacked and badly damaged, while a Catholic priest;s residence suffered scorch damage in an arson attack.

Eight masked men attacked Dickson's Greenisland home on the outskirts of North Belfast at around 1am on Wednesday morning, 12 June. The Alliance councillor was in bed at the time. Every window in the front of the house was smashed with paint bombs and hammers. Two cars belonging to Dickson and his wife had all their windows smashed.

According to Dickson, the attack on his home was an act of "retaliation" for his attempts to have UDA/UFF murals removed from the Glassillan Road area of Greenisland.

"This was extremely frightening for both myself and my wife, It wasn't just me who is demanding the removal of these murals. I was dealing on behalf of a lot of people concerned with the effect these murals were having on the community," he said.

In two separate attacks in the Glenavy area near Lisburn, in County Antrim, a Church of Ireland minister and a Catholic priest were targeted. Neither clergyman was injured when loyalists attacked their homes in the early hours of Thursday morning, 13 June.

In the first attack at St Peter's parochial house on the Rock Road, Lisburn, the sitting room suffered scorch damage when a smoke canister thrown through a window exploded beside a sofa. A second unexploded flare was discovered outside the house.

The resident priest, Father John Murphy, his housekeeper and her 97-year-old mother were in the house at the time of the incident. "There was a banging sound which sounded like an explosion," said Fr Murphy. "At first we thought the church was on fire because we could see smoke coming over the church."

This was the sixth time in the last two years that the priest's home and St Peter's has been targeted by loyalists.

Twenty minutes after the attack on St Peter's, loyalists attacked the Church of Ireland rectory in Glenavy, a few miles away. The Reverend Earl Storey was at home with his wife when several windows of the vicarage were smashed. The windscreen of his car was also broken.

Rev Storey believes he was targeted because he criticised the relationship between the Church of Ireland and the Orange Order. In his book Traditional Roots, which he published recently, he suggested that there should be a progressive disengagement between the Church of Ireland and the Orange Order.

"I have been living here leading a reasonably quiet life and then I publish this book and a month later we have this attack. It is hard not to believe it is linked," he said.

Speculation has it that the loyalist Orange Volunteers may have been behind the attacks, as the loyalist organisation has been active in this area over the last few years.

St Peter's is near Stoneyford village, where a horde of British Military intelligence documents was found in November 1999. The dump uncovered in the village's Orange Hall contained the details of hundreds of Northern nationalists and was said to have been in the control of the Orange Volunteers.

SDLP minister threatened

The SDLP's Carmel Hanna, the Minister for Further and Higher Education in the North's Assembly, has been threatened by the Ulster Young Militants (UYM), the youth wing of the UDA.

Graffiti painted on a wall in the Great Northern Street area of South Belfast warns Hanna "your days are numbered" and labels her "republican scum".

On Sunday 9 June Hanna received a letter from the UFF warning her that she is a legitimate target. This followed her condemnation of loyalist flags in the Lisburn Road area of South Belfast.

There have already been two attacks on her constituency offices. First, an explosive device was left outside her offices on the Lisburn Road, then, on Monday 10 June, a window was smashed in an attempted arson attack.

The UYM has been increasingly active in the South Belfast area in recent weeks. The UDA enlists young people into the UYM and uses them out to start sectarian riots in interface areas. They have also sent these young people to carry out pipe bomb attacks on Catholic homes, schools and chapels.

One such UYM member was Glenn 'Spacer' Branagh, who was killed in November last year when a bomb he was about to lob into nationalist North Queen Street during a UDA attack exploded prematurely.

Cemetery targeted again

Up to ten graves at Carnmoney cemetery in Newtownabbey, on the outskirts of North Belfast, were damaged in a spree of sectarian violence at the weekend. The damage was discovered after relatives attending Mass on Sunday morning went to visit the graves.

Most of the graves desecrated were those of Catholics, including that of a baby's. However the loyalists also targeted the grave of 22 year old Protestant Raymond McCord, who was killed by the UVF in November 1997.

His father has blamed the UVF for the attacks and believes other graves were randomly picked out and attacked to stop the finger of suspicion being pointed at the UVF.

On one grave, a large Celtic cross headstone was knocked over and a photograph on another headstone was gouged out and destroyed. Stone angels on a baby's headstone were broken off and smashed wile flowers from graves were strewn all over the place.

Seamus McAloran, speaking as he visited his sister's grave, called for security at the cemetery to be tightened. "I just could not believe what met me this morning. It was a sight of total destruction," said Mr McAloran.

The grave of 20-year-old Belfast postman Daniel McColgan, who was shot by loyalists at he start of this year, was attacked in May and last month's Cemetery Sunday was marred by loyalist protesters after pipe bombs were found nearby.

Sinn Féin Newtownabbey councillor Breige Meehan told An Phoblacht: "These loyalist attacks on this graveyard are getting out of hand. They are not just attacking nationalists in their homes but now in their graves as well." She addedd that some people are thinking of reinterring their relatives in other graveyards.

McGurks memorial attacked

The memorial to the 15 people, including two children, who died in a UVF bomb attack on McGurk's bar in North Queen Street, North Belfast, in December 1971, was attacked by loyalists on Sunday night 9 June. The monument was erected last year, on the 30th anniversary of the bombing.

In full view of the security cameras on the huge RUC/PSNI barracks in North Queen Street, loyalists poured paint over the monument and escaped. Local residents have told An Phoblacht they saw men getting out of a blue Ford Escort car which had came into the area from the loyalist Tigers Bay.

Sinn Féin Assembly member for North Belfast Gerry Kelly said: "This is an utter disgrace to try and destroy this monument put up to remember the innocent victims of this atrocity. It is only one in a long line of attacks on monuments across the Six Counties in the past few weeks. This was done to raise the sectarian tensions in this interface area."

It has emerged that RUC/PSNI personnel stationed in the barracks saw nothing of the attack. Marie Irvine, whose mother was killed in the atrocity, was told by the RUC/PSNI the only camera that was working had been pointed at Brougham Street. She responded that they would have been able to see the vehicle used coming from Tigers Bay, but was told that nothing was seen on the camera.

"We put this memorial up ourselves and are just sickened by the attack on the memory of our innocent loved ones," she said. "The local community have been a tremendous support in offering to clean up the damage."

Teenager assaulted

The mother of a 14-year-old boy attacked by loyalists has branded her sons attackers as "sick and twisted". The boy, who is too frightened to be named, said his attackers punched him over and over again and tried to stub their cigarettes out on him and burned holes in his Celtic top.

The attack happened after the youth had got on a bus in the city centre to take him home to North Belfast. Four loyalists also boarded the bus and seeing his Celtic top, surrounded him and started verbally abusing him, calling him names and threatening him. The ordeal only ended for the boy when the loyalists got off at Ballysillan.

"I am very angry, I didn't bring my son up to be sectarian, what harm was a 14 year old doing on the bus?" saked hius mother, Anne Hancock.

Sinn Féin councillor Eoin Ó Broin told An Phoblacht he had written to Translink about the incident and asked them to investigate it. "This is not an isolated incident and I want Translink to look at steps which can be taken to prevent more attacks like this one," he said.

UDA behind hoaxes

A series of loyalist hoax bomb alerts at the Ardoyne shops in North Belfast have caused massive disruption over the past two weeks.

A suspect device left at the shops on Tuesday 18 June brought the number of hoax devices left between Twaddell Avenue and the Ardoyne Road to six in the past two weeks. Two funerals taking place at the Holy Cross Church were disrupted and pensioners were not able to get to the post office while the suspect device was being examined.

Sinn Féin councillor for the area, Margaret McClenaghan, said the campaign is "a calculated move to raise tensions in this area as we come towards the marching season, which begins next week for the people of North Belfast. It is clearly a tactic from the UDA to draw a response from this community.

Loyalists from the Twaddell Avenue attacked nationalist houses after the Ireland football match on Sunday afternoon 16 June.