Loyalist attacks 2001

In the last eight months there have been over 220 loyalist recorded in the media. In other words, on average, there has been a sectarian attack, serious enough to warrant media attention, against the Catholic community in the Six Counties almost every day.

These attacks have included over 75 bombings, mostly pipe bomb attacks and over 20 gun attacks, in which three people have been shot dead. Twenty-Five-year-old John McCormick was shot dead by the UDA on 23 June, just before he was due to give evidence about a gun attack in which the UDA shot 11-year-old girl Charlene Daly during the loyalist feud last year.

In July, Ciaran Cummings, a 19-year-old Catholic, was shot dead in a drive-by shooting as he waited for a lift to work on a roundabout outside Antrim town. Despite the killing being claimed by the Red Hand Defenders, a cover used by both the LVF and UDA, David Trimble denied the killing was sectarian and claimed it was drugs related. He was later forced to apologise.

Three weeks later 18-year-old Gavin Brett was shot dead outside a GAA club in North Belfast by loyalist gunmen who thought he was a Catholic. Gavin's Catholic friend Michael Farrell was seriously injured in the attack. The teenagers had been attending a birthday celebration at a local GAA club.

There have been five reported abduction attempts, including two attempts within hours of the Brett killing. There have been over 50 reported attacks by organised loyalist mobs, which has included brutal attacks on individual Catholics as well as incursions often involving hundreds of loyalists into nationalist estates.

In April, Thomas Lowry, 49-year-old electrician from Glengormley, was beaten to death by a loyalist mob in the mistaken belief he was a Catholic. Days later Mary Campbell, a 51-year-old grandmother was beaten and left for dead outside her North Belfast home by a loyalist mob.

Last week, the night before the funeral of Gavin Brett, a loyalist mob attempted to abduct the sexton of the Church of Ireland church where the funeral was to take place. The man was beaten and repeatedly stabbed by the gang in the mistaken belief that he was a Catholic.

There have been over 30 petrol-bomb and arson attacks, targeting Catholic homes, schools, churches and businesses. In one of the most serious incidents pensioners living on the edge of Belfast's Short Strand escaped death and serious injury only because neighbours close by rescued them. Sixteen pensioner's bungalows were damaged.

Intimidation is far more widespread than ever reported but of over a dozen cases recorded by An Phoblacht, the most serious was in Lisburn. On 10 July, masked loyalists forced their way into the home of Geraldine Ewing and ordered the family out. Geraldine died of heart attack just hours later.

The majority of attacks, almost 50%, have been in Belfast, most of which have been in North Belfast. The nationalist community here has suffered sectarian persecution at a level unprecedented since the early 1970s. Other vulnerable nationalist areas in Larne, Coleraine, Ballymena and Ballynahinch have also been targeted.

It comes as no surprise to observers that these attacks are being launched from UDA strongholds. This is the same UDA that was armed with South African weapons by Brian Nelson as he worked for British Intelligence. The same group which, like other loyalists, have been supplied with intelligence information on nationalists by both the RUC and the British Army. Indeed, over the past number of years we have seen the details of hundreds of nationalists fall into loyalist hands from the files of the RUC and British Intelligence.

It is clear that Catholics of all ages are vulnerable to sectarian attack, at home, at work and going to and from school, attending chapel or socialising in clubs and pubs, even attending a festival drama. Over the past number of weeks Sinn Fein have brought forward a number of initiatives aimed at bringing pressure on the UDA to end these attacks. We have met with community workers, Trade Unions, church groups, politicians, the Mayor of Belfast and the British Secretary of State John Reid.

But more needs to happen. This litany of loyalist violence not only bears testimony to the sectarian nature of the Six-County state but also demonstrates the imperative of the Equality Agenda and the right to live free from sectarian harassment as envisaged by the Good Friday Agreement.

Washington Sinn Fein

18.8.2001