Irish Republican Watch 15th January 2014 - 18th February 2014
The following list of sectarian and other hate-driven incidents and attacks is from 15th January 2014 thru 18th February 2014. The criteria we use for inclusion is based on Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC) criteria; if a person/organisation feels that the motivation for an attack against them was sectarian (or racist or homophobic), then it should be counted as such. We rely on a number of sources for our information, but this is by no means comprehensive. If you find incidents that have been left off, or if you would like to provide information for future instalments please contact us.
15th Jan
Schoolgirls as young as 11 years of age have been left shocked and traumatised after a sectarian attack in North Belfast. The girls, all pupils at the Girls Model School had boarded their school bus, when a gang of republican men forced their way on board. They subjected the Protestant girls to sectarian abuse and pelted them with eggs.
Oldpark councillor Gareth McKee said the girls were on their way home around 3.45pm yesterday when nationalist youths boarded their bus on the Oldpark Road and pelted pupils with eggs while shouting sectarian abuse. Cllr McKee added: “The nationalist attackers shouted sectarian abuse at the Protestant schoolgirls as they carried out the attack. “First year pupils were particularly terrified by this horrendous ordeal.
Source: BNL, BD
19th Jan
2 Protestant workmen at a west Belfast council depot have again received death threats. In the latest incident the pair were threatened in a telephone call made to the Samaritans last week by a caller claiming to be from the IRA. Protestant workers at the site have been subjected to intimidation and threats for months. Police informed both men of the threat, believed to be the third issued against them in recent weeks.
Source: SL
25th Jan
An IRA event in Belfast, to commemorate 3 dead terrorists, is hosted by St Johns Gaelic Athletic Club. A source said "In parts of Belfast the Gaelic Athletic Association exists primarily to recruit, fund and aid republican murder gangs."
Source EW, SF
31st Jan
Nationalists have launched an attack on a number of pensioners’ homes along an interface flashpoint in west Belfast. The PSNI are treating the attacks on the homes of the elderly Protestant residents as sectarian.
Rocks were thrown over from a nationalist area on the Springfield Road causing damage to the roofs of houses in Kirk Street in the Woodvale area. A car windscreen and a house window in Workman Avenue were broken.
DUP councillor Nicola Verner said there had an upsurge in sectarian attacks along the peaceline in recent weeks. “These have included attacks on residents’ homes and cars by nationalist youths entering Workman Avenue from Springfield Road, while bungalows in Kirk Street have been pelted with eggs and now with rocks,” she added.
Source: BD
2nd Feb
Nationalists attacked the tiny Protestant fountain estate in Londonderry with Petrol Bombs, bricks and other missiles. The orchestrated violence took place after a republican parade in the city earlier in the day.
Source: LS, BNL, CW, EW, PSNI
3rd Feb
A second night of attacks on the Protestant families in Londonderry's Fountain Estate. Chief Inspector Jon Burrows said that petrol bombs, paint bombs and bricks were thrown towards the mainly Protestant Fountain estate on Sunday and Monday nights.
Nigel Gardiner of the PUP said: “These attacks are nothing more than a sinister campaign of sectarian intimidation by Republicans against a vulnerable community. The attacks have been going on for years and sadly residents have become accustomed to living in fear and having their lives disrupted.”
The PSNI came under attack after responding to a report that petrol bombs were being thrown from Nailors’ Row towards the Fountain.
Mr Gardiner said: “The plight of residents in Fountain goes largely unreported and this leaves me dismayed. This latest attack with bottles and petrol bombs follows a spate of attacks which have included an incursion into the area by a Republican gang where property and murals were vandalised.”
Source: LS, BNL, CW, EW, PSNI
5th Feb
For the third night this week republicans have launched petrol bomb and missile attack on homes in the Fountain Estate in Londonderry. Foyle MP Mark Durkan of the nationalist SDLP condemned those responsible for throwing petrol bombs into the Fountain estate in Londonderry for the third time this week. Mr Durkan said: “Those responsible are out to cause damage and their contemptible actions only show they have an utter disregard for the many people who live nearby. Indeed, it is a disgrace that elderly people – particularly in Alexander House – are being put through such distress and disruption. No-one, especially elderly citizens, should be subjected to such anxiety and strain.”
Source: LS
5th Feb
Republic of Ireland youth international footballer Joe Gorman, 19, who plays for Inverness Caledonian Thistle, has been suspended after posting a sectarian tweet in which he expresses a desire to open fire on members of the OO. Gorman posted a tweet saying: “Ross Kemp in Belfast talking about the troubles, wouldn’t you just love to open up on all them orange men.”
A spokesman for the Orange Order said: “The comment made by the player concerned was grotesque in the extreme. It is all the more sickening given terrorists who ‘opened up’ on our brethren have left 550 children from the Orange family without a father.”
Source: HS, BNL
5th Feb
ISRAELI police are questioning a suspected Irish bombmaker in the West Bank after arresting him over contact with Palestinian militants, Israeli security sources have said. According to reports in Sunday newspapers, the suspect had been a member of the mainstream IRA guerrilla group, but switched allegiances to the dissident Real IRA splinter group four years ago.
Source: BD
6th Feb
A 40 strong gang of nationalists attacked homes and residents in the Protestant Lower OIdpark area of north Belfast. Several local children were subjected to sectarian abuse and physical assault. One Protestant youth who was attacked with a bottle was rushed to hospital. His condition is unknown at present. The mob are thought to have come from the Ardoyne area. PSNI made no arrests even though the gang were in the area for a considerable time and upon leaving, made their way towards Belfast City Centre.
Source: EW, CW, DUP, PSNI
7th Feb
Police searching a house in Crozier Park, Lurgan, Co Armagh have uncovered a "viable explosive device" . The planned search was part of an investigation into Republican murder gang activity. A number of residents had to be evacuated while the army bomb squad made the device safe. The alert has now ended and the bomb has been removed from the scene for examinations.
Source: UTV, BT, BBC
7th Feb
Republican gunmen have shot a man at least 4 times in his west Belfast home. At around 6.50pm, two armed men forced their way into a house in Corrib Ave and shot the victim in both knees and both ankles. The man, in his 30's was admitted to hospital.
Source: UTV, BT
8th Feb
A GARDA operation into Republican terrorist activity has uncovered more than €2m in counterfeit notes. The find followed a lengthy undercover operation, led by the Special Branch and involving several national units. After a small seizure in Dublin, €2m worth of notes in various states of completion were uncovered, along with a printing press at a lock-up in Co Meath. 3 Men have been charged in relation to the find.
Source: II
14th Feb
The Equality Commission has told Newry and Mourne District Council that its decision to name a children’s playground after a prominent IRA member was “a breach” of its equality commitments.
The nationalist controlled council chose to name the playground after Raymond McCreesh, a notorious sectarian serial killer who was arrested in possession of a gun used to murder 10 Protestant civilians at Kingsmill crossroads in 1976.
The commission added that while some people thought the name was solely a matter for immediate neighbours, “public spaces should be comfortable for everyone to walk in whether they live in the immediate area or not”.
It added that “the play park name presents a significant chill factor for the use of a council-run play park by families of a Protestant/unionist background”.
The commission concluded that there had been “a breach of the council’s 2012 Equality Scheme commitment” and recommended that the council review the naming decision and its related policy within 12 months.
Source: BNL
17th Feb
A group calling itself the IRA has vowed further attacks on the UK after claiming responsibility for a series of crude letter bombs sent to British military recruitment offices.
A coded message sent to a newspaper in Northern Ireland said “the IRA” was behind last week’s campaign and that attacks will “continue when and where the IRA see fit”.
Seven parcel bombs were delivered to military careers offices across the south east of England during the course of last week.
Source:TT
17th Feb
A man has been arrested after gardaí searching a house in Co Donegal recovered a firearm. The man, in his 40s, was detained at the scene, under Section 30 of the Offences against the State Act, 1939, and taken to Ballyshannon Garda Station.
Source: UTV
17th Feb
Police in County Tyrone have criticised as "mindless" an attack on their vehicles while officers went to the scene of a sudden death. The attack, by nationalists, happened in the Ballycolman estate in Strabane.
Source: BBC
17th Feb
A security alert was sparked in Co Donegal on Monday night after the discovery of a suspect object. Army bomb experts removed the item from the scene at Burnfoot, close to the border with Derry.
Source: UTV
18th Feb
In a stark reminder of just what a united Ireland may entail, the board of a school in the Republic has been ordered to pay a Protestant schoolboy €750 after a principal referred to the boy's parents as part of the "rebel crowd", made derogatory comments about their religion and punished him for not attending First Communion and Confirmation ceremonies.
The tribunal heard that the boy was ordered by the principal to stand against a classroom wall as punishment for not attending a First Communion ceremony with his schoolmates at a local Roman Catholic church, despite being a member of the Church of Ireland.
He was also excluded from a "homework holiday" in which the other children who had made their First Communion at the church were rewarded.
Source: BT
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Source Abbreviations
AN - Ananova
AP - Associated Press
BBC - British Broadcasting Corporation
BD - Belfast Daily
BNL - Belfast News Letter (www.newsletter.co.uk)
BT - Belfast Telegraph
CW - Community Worker(s)
DJ - Derry Journal
EW - Eye-Witness
FT - Financial Times
Gu - The Guardian
HS - Herald Scotland
HZ - Ha'aretz (Middle-East newspaper)
Iec - Irish Echo
IEx - Irish Examiner
II - Irish Independent
IT - Irish Times
LE - Liverpool Echo
LS - Londonderry Sentinel
MH - Miami Herald
NT - news.telegraph.co.uk
TS - The Scotsman
Ob - Observer (www.observer.co.uk)
SBP - Sunday Business Post
SH - Sunday Herald
SI - Sunday Independent
SL - Sunday Life
SM - Shankill Mirror
SoS - Scotland on Sunday
STr -Sunday Tribune
TT - The Telegraph
UH - Ulster Herald
UTV - Ulster Television
