Sectarian intimidation drives Catholics out

For many years, Antrim was used by the statutory agencies as a dumping ground for anti-social elements excluded from housing in Belfast. A few years ago, drug dealers, armed, ruthless and apparently beyond the law, had held sway, intimidating families and frequently forcing them out.

Aine Gribbon had been one of many women who had successfully campaigned to reclaim the estate from criminal intimidation. But now Aine, like many other families within this community, is facing another kind of threat. Last week, the PSNI visited Áine to inform her that her life, and the lives of other prominent local activists, was in imminent danger from loyalist paramilitaries.

The PSNI officer who informed the Gribbon family of this death threat was very clear about its source. There was a new UDA leader in Antrim and he intended to kill a number of local republicans to enhance his standing within the loyalist community. But in the back living room of her home, Áine was not preoccupied with the threat against her life but the plight of other members of her community.

"It was around 10.30pm on Saturday night," said Aine, "when about 40 loyalists, mostly men and dressed in black attacked a row of six houses".

A few hundred yards from Áine's home, at the bottom end of a large green, six houses occupied by Catholic families in the Stiles estate came under attack. A couple living in one of the houses described all the front windows, upstairs and down, coming in around them simultaneously and with such force that the shattered glass covered the rooms.

Aine had been one of a number of local residents to run across the playing field to the scene of the attack. "There was a whole crowd of loyalists and only two PSNI officers," said Áine.

Later, a CID officer told a resident that the PSNI weren't sure that the attack had been sectarian because some of the families whose homes had been targeted were mixed marriages. The loyalist mob returned on Sunday night and launched an attack on a number of other Catholic homes in the area.

During last year's Orange marching season, over 60 Catholic families were forced to flee following loyalist intimidation in Antrim. Having successfully driven many Catholics away from the adjacent Steeples and Park Hall estates, loyalists now appear intent on extending their control in the Stiles area.

Local Sinn Féin Councillor Martin McManus says the media portrayal of what is currently occurring in Antrim as 'tit-for-tat' inter-community strife is not only misleading but also adds to the plight of those targeted for intimidation.

"We are witnessing loyalist paramilitaries intent on creating a divided community by driving Catholics out of a mixed area," he said. "To describe that process as 'tit-for-tat' is a dangerous nonsense and buys into the loyalist agenda of making it impossible for Protestants and Catholics to live peacefully within integrated housing.

"It is a matter of personal pride, that I can tell you that during a period of intense provocation, in which over 300 Catholics have been rendered homeless by loyalist intimidation, not one single Protestant has been intimidated out of this estate. Sectarian retaliation is not an option here; loyalism may thrive on division but republicans are intent upon building a society of equals."