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Irish Republican Media, September 6, 2004

Lucky to be alive after UDA attack in North Belfast

"This was a sectarian attack carried out by the UDA on a young nationalist in the Whitewell area. It was deliberate and premeditated. Many local people were concerned that there would be a sectarian attack after the UDA mounted a show of strength on Saturday in the area.
"This young man is extremely lucky to be alive today.
"Unionist politicians and civic and community leaders need to do more to defuse tensions not just in the Whitewell area but throughout North Belfast where there has been an increase in UDA activity. Comments from unionist political leaders in recent days have only served to increase tension. I would urge them to abandon their overtly sectarian approach to community relations."

Sinn Féin North Belfast councillor Danny Lavery

On a hill just above the main turning into the nationalist enclave of Whitewell in North Belfast there's a security barrier leading into Belfast zoo. Loyalists from the nearby White City have been seen sitting in cars at the barrier. From that vantage point it is easy to identify Catholics turning to walk the short distance from Floral Road into Whitewell.

Here the road is isolated, lined only by trees and obscured from homes in the Whitewell estate by a sharp bend. This turning already has a history. It's the spot where Gerard Lawlor was shot dead by unionist paramilitaries in July 2002. Last Sunday when a passing driver saw a gang attacking a stricken teenager he immediately knew what was happening.

In an act of considerable courage, the driver stopped and challenged the gang. It was an act that certainly saved Joe McKernon's life. The gang fled, piling into a getaway car, later found abandoned and burnt out a short distance away at Loughside Recreation centre on the Shore Road. A few moments later a second driver stopped to assist the injured teenager whose only hope had been to alert passing traffic to his plight.

The two drivers tried to keep the seriously injured 18-year-old calm. It was immediately obvious to them how seriously the teenager had been injured. There were several abdominal stab wounds and a wound to the chest. One driver described seeing the victim's inner organs lying outside the wound. "They meant to kill," said a driver, "the fact that they were interrupted saved a life."

Joe was rushed to the Mater hospital where he received emergency surgery first on one lung and later his bowels. His condition has been described as serious but stable. Local Priest Fr Whyte said the community was trying to get to grips with what had happened. " I cannot understand how anyone could do this," he said.

The attack followed heightening sectarian tension within the area that local people are linking to the current political talks. "Unionist paramilitaries always crank things up when there's political talks," said a Whitewell resident.

The atmosphere has not been enhanced by an increasing number of unionist parades. Most recently, the psuedo unionist paramilitary Whitewell Defenders Flute band organised a parade last Saturday. In an act of pure provocation, the self-styled Defenders invited 28 loyalist bands and a thousand marchers to take part in a four-hour parade through the Whitewell area.

The parade commemorated the death of local teenager Thomas McDonald who was killed three years ago in controversial circumstances. McDonald was riding his bike when a car driven by a resident from the nationalist estate struck him. A local woman was charged and convicted in relation to the accident.

McDonald was knocked off his bike after the driver pursued him along a footpath after he had thrown a brick at her windscreen. The Catholic mother was jailed for two years for manslaughter.

At the time of his death McDonald had been a member of the Whitewell Defenders Flute band and a well-known member of a White City gang that regularly stoned cars travelling towards the nationalist Whitewell and Longlands areas.

Unionist commentators and media are linking the brutal sectarian attack by unionists against the Catholic teenager on Sunday to an earlier incident in which two unionist paramilitary bandsmen were stabbed. The bandsmen had taken part in an Orange commemoration in Sandy Row on Friday 27 August of the weekend before.

According to local people trouble flared in the early hours of Saturday morning 28 August between a number of nationalist teenagers and a larger group of unionist paramilitary bandsmen. A knife wielded by one of the bandsmen was taken off him by his intended victim who lashed out as a five-man gang kicked him to the ground. Two bandsmen were injured.

A few hours later unionists from White City attacked a Catholic funeral. The cortege was attacked by a mob wielding machetes in what the media has described as a 'revenge' attack. The fact that an incident of the previous night involving a number of youths and drunken unionist bandsmen, following which there were a number of arrests, led to an attack on a Catholic funeral is indictative of a sectarian ethos in which "any taig will do".

A week later Catholic teenager Joe McKernon became another target in the UDA thirst for 'retailiation'. Whitewell community worker Paul McKernon has criticised the willingness of the media to repeat spurious attempts to justify the sectarian murder attempt by the UDA that almost resulted in his young relative's death.

"I was disappointed that when interviewed by the media John Montgomery failed to condemn the attack, he merely suggested it was inevitable," said Paul. Montgomery is a member of the UDA linked Ulster Political Research Group.

Paul said that despite the provocative nature of the unionist parade, nationalist community workers in Whitewell had taken measures, including taking many children and young people for a funday away from area to help ensure that the day passed off peacefully. "This community has endured three weekends of unionist parades," said Paul.

Unionist claims of sectarian attacks against Protestant residents of White City have been rubbished by local people. Speaking to the Newsletter, unionist councillor Tommy Kirkham of the UPRG claimed that there had been "on going attacks" against Protestant residents in the area for several months.

"The intimidation and attacks are a deliberate attempt to drive Protestants from this area," Kirkham said.

But local Sinn Fein councillor Danny Lavery insists that many unionist claims, often repeated in the media are totally spurious. A claim that a local Orange hall was "besieged" by nationalists in an "attack" which left women and children in the hall crying and distressed has been vigorously refuted.

"A small crowd of nationalists had gathered at some distance after unionists attending the parade attacked five residents in Catherine's Court but the Orange hall was not besieged, people in the hall had free access to the Whitewell Road and moved freely in and out of the hall. At 8.30pm those attending the hall walked down the Whitewell Road to waiting buses without incident," said Danny.

Sinn Fein Councillor Eoin O'Broin has also questioned unionist claims of "ethnic cleansing" after Protestant families living in the Torrens are were rehoused. O'Broin said that claims of intimidation were completely unfounded.

"We are aware that a number of families had asked the Housing Executive to move them. We categorically deny allegations of a systematic campaign of intimidation or ethnic cleansing to force people out of their homes," said the city councillor.

"This interface like many in North Belfast has seen large volumes of violence over the last number of years, the majority of which was the work of the UDA. Nevertheless in the last 12 months this interface has been significantly quieter than in previous years," said O'Broin.

"It's important to stress that over the last two years a large number of Catholic families have been forced out of Wyndham Street as a result of UDA violence and there continues to be a significant amount of fear in this community," said O'Broin.

"Billy Hutchinson of the PUP, in making claims of intimidation, cites 1996. In 1996 unionist paramilitaries attacked the homes of a number of Catholic families who had moved into Torrens believing after the unionist paramilitaries declared a ceasefire it would be safe to do so. They were mistaken," said O'Broin.

One night in July Catholic homes in Torrens were attacked by a unionist paramilitary mob who smashed their way in and threatened to kill Catholic residents. Families fled with just the clothes they stood in. One home was set on fire by the mob and the family lost all their belongings. Sectarian and abusive graffiti was daubed on doors. Catholic families who did not flee that night fled the next day after the unionist paramilitaries informed them they would be burnt out the following night.

"There is no record of anything like this ever being inflicted upon Protestant families in Torrens," said O'Broin.

Meanwhile the home of a Catholic family in the Torrens area was attacked in the early hours of Saturday morning. Pauline Short, her husband and three children were all sleeping when the attack happened.

Around 4am two masked men armed with sticks smashed the family's front living room window. The attack took place in full view of the nearby PSNI barracks. The family had been threatened 24 hours earlier. A second house was also attacked and the car belonging to a Catholic resident was also attacked.

Evicted Catholic families from nearby Deerpark have reacted angrily at the news that rehoused Protestant families received monetary assistance from the Housing Executive to help them move. "No one minds people getting rehoused and financial help to move but the treatment of residents of Torrens Court stands in sharp contrast to the treatment of Catholic families in Deerpark," said a former resident.

This time last year dozens of Catholic families were forced to leave their Deerpark homes after unionist paramilitaries issued death threats and orchestrated a campaign of sectarian intimidation.

A woman who was forced to leave her Deerpark home last September said she and other families forced to flee had received no assistance from the Housing Executive. "When we left we had no where to go and were told to go into a hostel. In the end we slept on a friend's floor until we found somewhere else to live," she said.


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