Bomb attack on GAA athletes

Loyalists are being blamed for a bomb attack at a community centre where a Gaelic sports team was training.

Antrim mayor Adrian Watson condemned the attack and revealed that players inadvertently walked past the device as they were evacuated.

The Stiles community centre was the scene of the attack on the St Comgall’s club.

The PSNI said the devices were “non-viable”.

They warned members of the public not to approach any other suspicious devices.

Mr Watson, a UUP councillor, said loyalists were being blamed and added: “there was “no justification for the attack. “The local [GAA] club are entitled to use whatever facilities they want, it’s a community centre. It’s open to all.”

Tommy Crilly, chairman of St Comgall’s GAA dub, said: ‘ We are a patently non-sectarian organisation, whose concerted ellorts in encouraging participation from all sections of the Antrim community are well recognised.

We would very much wish to be allowed to continue in safety to make our ongoing significant contribution to the rich sporting life of the Antrim area.”

ADAIR ‘TO RETURN’

Notorious UDA paramilitary Johnny ‘Mad Dog’ Adair has promised to return to the Six Counties after the UDA claimed it had decommissioned all of its weaponry.

Former UDA commander Adair, who fled the north following a major feud within the organisation, believes that gives him the all-clear to go back.

“I’ve always said I will return home and this day will happen sometime this year,” he told the tabloid New of the World newspaper. “The UDA told the world they are committed to peace so there should be no problem.

“My enemies will have kept a few guns for me but they don’t frighten me. The only way I’ll leave is if someone kills me.”

Urgent Appeal