Weekend of sectarian violence

Some of the worst rioting in north Belfast in months took place last Sunday night.

Trouble broke out in the North Queen Street area after stone-throwing throughout the day.

At its height, more than 50 people were involved.

Sinn Féin councillor Caral Ni Chuilin said the trouble started when a group of men from the loyalist Tiger’s Bay ran into the nationalist New Lodge area armed with golf clubs and stones.

“This was particularly sinister because the violence was orchestrated.

It was well organised,” she said.

She also said that there were no community representatives on the ground who were available to help calm the situation.

Meanwhile, a Catholic couple have been attacked for a third time in recent months in a sectarian attack in County Armagh.

The couple’s home, in Greenfields estate in Armagh city, and car were attacked in the latest incident.

Sectarian graffiti was daubed on the fence at the rear of the property, while the front window of the house, and the car windscreen, were smashed.

The attack happened in the early hours of Saturday.

The latest attack comes a month after a loyalist attempted to slit the throat of the mother-of-two, who lives at the house with her boyfriend and their two young children.

The 22-year-old suffered cuts to her face, neck and arms as she fought off a man who attacked her in the back garden of her home, as her two sons, aged four and eight-months, were indoors.

The attack came after a group of loyalist teens had shouted at her in the street that they would “slit your throat while you’re asleep”.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, said she believed she was targeted because she is a Catholic and from Dublin.

Earlier this month the mother spoke of her fears after finding a death threat written on the back door of the home.

The slogan - ‘You’re dead Fenian. Bang Bang. You’re dead’ was written in permanent marker.

* A sectarian attack was also mounted on a house in Armagh city last weekend.

The front window of the house at Greenfield Court was smashed during the attack which occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Graffiti was scrawled over a fence and the windscreen of the family car was smashed.

The couple and their two children were in the house at the time but they were not injured.

Urgent Appeal