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April May 2004

Current Issues - April/May 2004

 

Paramilitaries

  • The UDA in Lisburn where blamed of attacking the home of Mr David Adams who formally represented the group politically as a member of the Ulster Democratic Party. The UDA was also blamed for shooting attack on the home of a Catholic family in Calbert Way, Ballynahinch. The attack was condemned by all of the main political parties in the area.
  • Loyalists in Ballymoney's Glebeside estate placed a hoax bomb and issued threats against building workers from a Catholic owned building firm. The threat came amid rising tensions in the area following the parades commission decisions to refuse permission for an Easter Orange Order parade in the nearby majority Catholic village of Dunloy.
  • The Loyalist Red Hand Commando was blamed for carrying out an attack on a 13 year-old boy in Bangor's Whitehill estate. The child had his leg broken in two places with metal bars and was thrown down a flight of steps. Two 15 year-old boys were treated in hospital following paramilitary punishment attacks in Inverary playing fields in East Belfast.
  • A 37 year-old man was attacked in a paramilitary beating by four masked men in Ardcaoin Drive, Poleglass, West Belfast. The attacked occurred 36 hours after the Independent Monitoring Commission reported on ongoing paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland. A 24-year-old man was shot in the ankles in New Barnsley Grove, West Belfast. Outside Belfast, a man beaten with iron bars in Strabane.
  • Four suspected republicans were arrested at a vehicle checkpoint on the main Camlough to Belleek road when a gun was recovered from the car they were travelling in. At least two of those arrested were believed to have come from Armagh. It was later revealed that the weapon was a Barret Light Fifty sniper rifle similar to that which the IRA had been using prior to the 1994 ceasefire. Only one of the weapons had ever been recovered before and the police were said to be carrying out forensic tests on the rifle to see if it could be connected with the killing of security forces during the conflict.
  • The RIRA claimed responsibility for two letter bombs sent to the offices of DUP MLA Peter Robinson and SDLP MLA Alex Attwood.
  • A family were unhurt following a shooting incident at their home during which the attackers fired shots through a window. In a similar incident in Bangor a mother and her son escaped injury following a shooting attack on their home in Hazelbrook Avenue. And in yet another attack, a family escaped injury when shots were fired at there house in Glenlea Park in East Belfast.
  • A pipebomb was discovered following a security alert on the Ballyhill road in West Belfast. A similar device was left outside a block of flats on the Crebilly Road, Ballykeel, Ballymena. Another was found along with quantity of ammunition at the Steeple Road, Co Antrim. Two pipebombs and handgun were recovered from the Hillcrest road in Antrim town. One pipe bomb was found in the front garden of a house in Veryan Gardens, off the Whitewell road in North Belfast and coffee jar bomb was made safe by British army technical officers in the predominantly Protestant Millburn close area of Cookstown.
  • A bomb was also dealt with near the new bridge a Toome. The Bridge has been surrounded by controversy over the choice of name – republicans wanting to call it the Roddy McCorley Bridge after a United Irishman from the 1798 rebellion, the SDLP after John Hume, and the NIO deciding upon 'Toome Bridge'.
  • Attacks on members of local District Policing Partnership continued. In Derry/Londonderry the home of former DPP member Pat Ramsey found a device in his garden.
  • Loyalists in Maghaberry jail staged a naked protest over claimed intensification of strip searches and inhumane treatment.
  • All of this activity came during a month in which the Independent Monitoring Commission indicated that all of the main paramilitary groupings had breached their ceasefires and engaged in targeting, violence and criminal activity.


Sectarianism

  • A Catholic teenager was attacked in a shopping centre in Derry/Londonderry while out with his mother, by up to 12 youths. The police believe there was a sectarian motive. A mother and her son escaped attack following an arson attack on their home in Limavady. A 17-year boy was badly beaten a left with a fractured skull following a sectarian assault on the Ligoniel road in North Belfast. A 29 year-old man was stabbed and suffered sectarian abuse in Glanleam Drive, Fortwilliam.
  • Up to 20 petrol bombs were thrown at Rosemount police station in Derry/Londonderry when it came under attack from a gang of youths, who later fled into the cities Creggan estate.
  • The Catholic Sacred Heart church in Ballyclare, Co Antrim was attacked with paint bombs.
  • St Matthews Catholic church on the Newtownards Road in East Belfast was attacked, windows were broken. This followed an attacked on a memorial garden to two Protestant IRA victims across the road from the church.
  • A memorial to a part time UDR soldier killed by the IRA in 1989 while working on a local golf course was vandalised in Lisburn.
  • Two houses where attacked, windows broken and car damaged in an attack in North Belfast in Torrens Court.
  • Concerns were raised over graffiti that appeared on walls in the mixed south Down village of Kilkeel. The writing 'no Taigs beyond this point' appeared near the Cranfield estate and was condemned by local councillors.
  • Sectarian leaflets were distributed calling for all Catholics to be removed from the Sandy Row in South Belfast. This was followed by a 200 strong protest outside a newly developed block of flats where students from the nearby Queen's University are in residence. Locals justified their actions on the basis of having been subjected to sectarian attacks. UUP politician Bob Stoker, local city councillor and member of the Belfast City Council good relations committee, refused to condemn the action or the leaflets.
  • A CRC report commission to investigate community relations in the borough of Newtownabbey feature on a number of occasions in the local press. In the latest it was reported the Council had met to discuss the report and an invitation was been extended to the CRC to address the council.


Parades

  • The Easter Monday parade by the Apprentice Boys along the length of the Ormeau Road in Belfast was banned by the Parade Commission from passing through the majority Catholic Lower Ormeau. The re-routed parade passed off peacefully. A similar parade in Ardoyne went ahead despite protests from local Catholic residents, but it too passed off peacefully.
  • The Parades Commission restricted the proposed Orange Order parade in Dunloy. The Presbyterian Church, which the Orange Order parades to, is approximately 325 yards from the Orange Hall. The local lodge and one band where allowed to parade approximately thirty yards from the Dunloy Orange Hall to a line of police and where they were then stopped from going any further. The Orangemen handed in a letter of protest and the parade ended peacefully.
  • A parade by the Junior Orange Order on Easter Tuesday took place in Bangor and passed off peacefully.
  • Danny Kennedy MLA, criticised a letter sent to homes in Newry as 'verging on incitement to hatred.' The remarks came in relation to a proposed loyalist band parade on the outskirts of the city. Appealing for restraint Mr Kennedy said that the organisers and the police were confident that the parade would cause only minor disruption and little or no inconvenience to residents.
  • Meanwhile a Sinn Féin Rally brought through the centre of Newcastle went ahead with no restrictions and was criticised by local DUP MLA Jim Wells.
  • A number of republican parades took place in Belfast to commemorate the 1916 Easter rising. They passed off peacefully
  • The quiet start to the parades season was welcomed by all sides of the political divide.


Minority Ethnic Groups

  • A group of Travellers caused concern when they moved into an area at the from of Boucher Crescent fire station in Belfast preventing the fire service from getting appliances out of the station. The issue was resolved when the Travellers moved on voluntarily following demands from local political representatives for ministerial intervention due to public safety concerns.
  • In similar incident in Limavady, a local councillor was accused of racism when he referred to Travellers who had moved into a car park overlooking the beach at Benone Strand as 'gypsies'. This incident was also resolved when the Travellers move from the site voluntarily.
  • The home of two Filipinos nurses who work in the Craigavon area hospital was attacked on the Granville road in Portadown. Following on from this attack NIO Minister Angela Smith condemned racism and pointed to the vital contribution that people from minority ethnic backgrounds make in the health and social services sector.
  • Community Relations week took place and was a resounding success with over 70 groups taking part. The week followed the theme Towards a Shared Future and paid special attention this year to increasing diversity of Northern Ireland. Notable participants included the Indian Community Culture Centre, the Belfast Islamic Centre and the Chinese Welfare Association.


Victims and Survivors

  • US president George Bush's special advisor on the Irish peace process suggested that Northern Ireland might benefit from recording the story of the victims of the troubles in the same way as the Steven Spielberg Shoah project recorded the historical testimony of survivors of the 1940's Nazi persecution of European Jews. This suggestion comes amid ongoing public discussion on whether Northern Ireland would benefit from some from of Truth and Reconciliation process similar to South Africa.
  • Wave Trauma Centre in Omagh marked Community Relations Week with the launch of an exhibition complied by the patrons over three years. Exhibits included entries by around 70 young people aged between 5 and 25 who have been affected by the troubles.
  • CRC hosted a two day conference in Limavady for groups working with victims of the conflict and NIO Minister Angela Smith took the opportunity to announce that the government was committed to substantial continued funding for victims groups. Details on the funding package have yet to be finalised.


Equality and Human Rights

  • Addressing the Racial Equality Forum, NIO minister, John Spellar stated that following the Shared Future consultation government was aware of the need to eliminate racism, and well as sectarianism. He went on to indicate that 'we will not lose sight of this focus in developing proposals for a new cross-departmental strategy and framework to promote good relations between and within communities in Northern Ireland and we hope to present these proposals later this year.' Minister Spellar also announced that the Race Equality Strategy for Northern Ireland will be published in the summer 2004.
  • The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission moved one step closer to a draft Bill of Rights when it published it latest thoughts on the subject following what it said where 'carefully considered views of the result from the consultation process'.
  • A social attitudes survey carried out by Altnaveigh House in Newry suggested that more than 8 out of every 10 Protestants feel excluded from social life in the local borough council area.
  • Microsoft is to open its windows software to Irish language computers users. A spokeswoman for the company announced that the translation was already underway as part of a Local Language Programme (LLP) which will also see software available in, amongst others, Ukrainian, Welsh and Tamil. The 28,000 Inuit people of Canada will also have their own version, but there is no intention of translating the operating system into Ulster-Scots which according to some sources is spoken by approximately 50,000 people.
  • West Tyrone MLA Barry McElduff accused the BBC of treating republicans as 'second class citizens' because the Easter lily is not given parity with the Remembrance day poppy on the TV station. Mr McElduff demanded that all broadcasters wear an Easter lily in the lapels when on screen. The BBC declined to comment.


Crime and Policing

  • The opening of a new centre in Derry/Londonderry to help victims of domestic violence was criticised by Sinn Féin Cllr Maeve McLaughlin due to its connection with the PSNI. However, the PSNI rebutted the criticism and said that the link with Foyle Women's Aid was vital and that Cllr McLaughlin's comments did 'nothing to alleviate the suffering of those affected by domestic violence… It is clear from her evidence,' suggested a police spokesman ' that Cllr McLaughlin does not fully understand that essential investigated role of the police in this partnership'.
  • Four men were successfully prosecuted under the Terrorism Act 2000 for flying LVF flags in Holywood. This was the first prosecution of its type. However, violence flared following the prosecution when up to 200 hundred people rioted outside Garnaville police station. Loyalists then put new flags up following a police operation to remove the first lot, which subsequent lead to a second PSNI operation in which over
  • Two men were arrested in connection with a loyalist activity in Bushmills following a police find of a Bren Heavy Machine Gun.


Public policy

  • In an attempt to deal more thoroughly with anti-social behaviour, NIO minister John Spellar announced that all new housing executive tenancies would be on an 'introductory basis'. New tenants will be on 12 months probation and will be able to be quickly evicted if they engage in anti-social behaviour during that period.
  • Unionist reacted furiously when it emerged that Derry/Londonderry city council was considering taking a high court action to have the name of the city clarified. This issue has been a subject of dispute for many years and the estimate costs if the action goes ahead are said to be in the region of £20,000. This action comes as the dispute over the city's name once again raises its head. In one incident during the month unionist and nationalist councillors clashed when the umbrella group for sporting bodies in the city announced that in the future it wants to be known as Derry District Sports Council. This was subsequently followed by a Sinn Féin motion in the city council which resulted in a call for the Harbour Commissioner to change the name of the city's port.
  • Castlereagh borough council announced that it would liase with local residents in a bid to address problems over bonfires lit on the 11th of July. Material for bonfires appears to be collected earlier every year. This has raised health and environmental concerns among some local residents and public agencies. The issue is not restricted to Belfast, as local media has reported similar problems in Ballynahinch, Coleraine and Lisburn.
  • Grass-cutting responsibilities belonging to the Department for Regional Development (DRD) will no longer take place on a Sunday in Ballymena. Local Councillors from a coalition calling itself 'never-on-a-Sunday' petitioned DRD to have the activity stopped and the contractor responsible bowed to pressure.



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