Surge in loyalist attacks on nationalists

By Anne Cadwallader

BELFAST — The omens do not look good for this year’s marching season after an upsurge in sectarian attacks on homeless Catholic families, on SDLP candidates, on a man in County Antrim, and on families living in both Belfast and Coleraine, Co. Derry.

In the worst attack of the last week, a man walking home from a bar in Antrim town was set upon by a gang of loyalists who pounded his head with their feet. He is on life-support.

A local unionist councilor said it was an unprovoked attack on an innocent man. The SDLP candidate in Antrim, Sean McKee, said it was the latest in a series of attacks in the town, where tension between rival loyalist groups is running high.

In North Belfast, a Catholic couple who, with their six children, survived one such attack, say they believe they were chosen at random for an "easy" sectarian attack. A pipe bomb was thrown through the front window of the end-terrace house at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The couple’s 20-year-old son, Conor Doyle, was in the living room but got out just before the blast. He had just returned from an eight-week trip to Canada with a cross-community group and said he was speaking on the phone to someone from the group when the bomb was thrown.

His parents and four brothers and a sister (ages 7-23) were sleeping in bedrooms at the time of the attack. His mother, Juliana Doyle, said she first heard a loud bang and, as she moved to go downstairs, there was a "terrible flash."

"This attack could have no motive whatsoever," she said. "We have been living here for 20 years and our sons have never been in any trouble. I can’t think of any reason for it other than because I’m a Catholic."

Catholics, including a local priest, have come under attack on Bombay Street in West Belfast. Fr. Patrick O’Donnell said families are "living in terror" after a sustained attack from stone throwers on the other side of the peace line.

He said people were "dreading the days and weeks ahead" as the threat of sectarian violence increases on the Falls/Shankill peace line.

"There were women and children standing around in clusters absolutely terrified," he said. "The stones were falling all around me and at one point someone walked alongside me with an umbrella to give me some protection."

Frances McAuley, from the Springfield Residents Association, said that bricks, stones and golf balls had smashed windows and damaging cars. "It’s the build-up to the marching season and it’s only going to get worse," she said.

Meanwhile, loyalist paramilitaries are believed to have carried out two pipe bomb attacks on Catholic families in Coleraine. It is believed both attacks were sectarian.

= The first attack happened at the Ballysally estate, where a mural depicting a loyalist hit squad getting out of a car was recently painted over, and locals replaced it with threatening graffiti.

The woman who lives at the house was out when the device was thrown through the kitchen window. It did not explode. The woman said she did not know why her home would have been targeted.

Five minutes later, a second device was pushed through the mailbox of a house in Harpurs Hill. Packed with screws, it exploded in the kitchen. Four children and their mother were asleep upstairs.

The woman of the house said: "We got to the top of the stairs and the smoke was so thick we phoned the fire brigade because we thought it was on fire. I’ll never forget the terrible smell."