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North’s summer violence wanes in intensity

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

It’s believed that a combination of good behind-the-scenes cross-community work in some areas (such as North Belfast) along with schisms within the UDA have gone some way to reducing tension over the summer.
Loyalists have also wanted to avoid the police concentrating on their lucrative drugs and prostitution rackets and have managed to keep the lid on sectarian violence in the hope it will reduce pressure on their other activities.
In Derry, summer sectarian attacks along the city’s only west bank interface have fallen dramatically. The number of sectarian attacks in the Fountain estate area this summer fell by 81 percent from the same period last year.
Incidents also fell by a quarter during the Apprentice Boys of Derry annual city center march. Chief Superintendent Johnny McCarroll praised community leaders on both sides of the divide.
Individual acts of violence are still taking place, such as the daylight assault of a group of young Catholics in South Belfast earlier this month, but police have also been making a significant number of arrests.
Lisburn, Co. Antrim, has been one area where tensions have occasionally risen. Much loyalist attention has been paid to Sinn Fein councilor Paul Butler, whose home has been attacked. He has also been the subject of a graffiti campaign, branding the slogans that have appeared both outside council offices and in Dunmurry as “a pathetic and crude attempt” to intimidate him.
In Omagh, there was fury at an arson attack on St. Enda’s GAA Club that damaged three quarters of the roof of the new stand, still under construction, and destroying about 200 seats.
Loyalists have also destroyed a Catholic family’s home in County Derry. The attack was carried out by “hate-filled morons and sectarian bigots,” according to the local Sinn Fein MP, Martin McGuinness.
Loyalist attacks in Belfast included one last week when nationalist homes in Cupar Street, just off the Springfield Road in West Belfast, came under petrol bomb attack for the second consecutive night.
In Derry City, the UDA has issued a new threat of violence. The paramilitary group’s latest statement accused nationalists of “a failure to help the police” and also listed grievances against republicans and dissidents.
“The UDA view with deep suspicion the nationalist community’s contribution to supporting policing structures when they have demonstrably shown that they are not prepared to cooperate with the PSNI,” it read.
A spokesman for the Ulster Political Research Group, which speaks for the UDA, said the statement was a “shot across the bow” and said it was possible the UDA would return to violence in the North Derry and Antrim areas.
Republican dissidents have been blamed for putting a bomb inside an abandoned car, which exploded at an Ulsterbus depot in County Down on Friday night. The blast happened as the fire brigade was extinguishing a blaze in the vehicle.
Meanwhile, a prominent dissident republican is calling on Sinn F

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