Sectarian Attacks

Catholic school evacuated

Catholic schoolchildren who had been attacked at a residential course last week in Bushmills County Antrim were evacuated from their school in Cushendall during a loyalist bomb scare.

St Aloysius's High School was evacuated after receiving a phone call warning that a bomb had been left at the premises around 1pm on Friday 12 December.

The warning was eventually declared a hoax.

The previous week, students from the school were on a course at Bushmills Educational Centre when stones and bottles were thrown by loyalists at the building where they were staying, breaking a number of windows. The children had to be evacuated from the centre and brought home in the early hours of the morning.

Sinn Féin's newly-elected MLA for North Antrim, Philip McGuigan, said the attack was deplorable.

Three more republican homes attacked

West Belfast Sinn Féin Assembly member Fra McCann has urged republicans to remain vigilant after another three republicans had their homes attacked on Tuesday night.

The homes of three republicans were attacked in the St James area. It appears that ball bearings were fired into the houses at around 11pm. In at least one of the cases, the ball bearing passed through double glazing and entered the living room, which was occupied at the time.

'Last night's attacks are the latest in a series of attacks on the homes of republicans in West Belfast in recent weeks," said McCann. "It is my belief that they are linked and that the information is coming directly from within the Crown Forces. I am urging republicans to remain vigilant in the time ahead."

UDA desecrate McColgan grave again

The mother of Danny McColgan, the postman shot dead by the UDA in January 2002, has accused the UDA of being intent on compounding her family's after they attacked her son's grave for the second time.

The attack on the grave in Carnmoney Cemetery was carried out some time between 2pm on Sunday and 10am on Monday morning 16 December.

Now Marie McColgan is calling on the Protestant community to isolate the unionist paramilitaries involved in the attack on her son's grave as part of their campaign of sectarian intimidation against nationalists in the Newtownabbey area.

The sectarian attack comes weeks before the second anniversary of the killing of the Catholic postman. The 20-year-old was killed by the Southeast Antrim brigade of the UDA as he arrived for work at the postal sorting office in Rathcoole, on the outskirts of North Belfast, in January 2002.

Such was the abhorrence at the killing of the Catholic father of one that thousands of people across the Six Counties took to the streets demanding an end to sectarianism.

Marie McColgan, who tends to her sons grave daily, discovered the damaged headstone, pictures of Danny smashed and flowers from the grave scattered about when she arrived at the cemetery on Monday morning 15 December.

"I'm disgusted, they are the lowest of the low. Why do they need to do this? They have no respect for the dead or anyone. The whole Protestant community should come out and say what these loyalists are like," she said.

McColgan has vowed to to restore the headstone no matter how many times unionist paramilitaries destroy it.

Local priest Father Dan White described the latest sectarian attack as 'diabolical'.

"How much can we ask people to endure?" he asked. "It is a particularly distressing time of year that people could be so heartless as to inflict that sort of suffering on a family that everyone agrees has suffered more that enough."

"Sectarian attacks on nationalist graves in Carnmoney cemetery just bring more grief and turmoil for the families especially at this time of year," said Sinn Féin Newtownabbey Councillor Briege Meehan.

Meanwhile, a 26-year-old loyalist appeared at Bangor Magistrate Court on Wednesday 10 December charged with possessing component parts of eight pipe bombs. Aiden Paul Stephens of Raceview Terrace in Newtownards was charged with possession of a controlled and explosive substance with intent to endanger life or cause serious damage to property.

Stephens was remanded in custody to appear at Newtownards Magistrates Court via video link on Friday 19 December.