Sinn Féin's Conor Murphy

Bombers target Sinn Féin activist

Sinn Féin Assembly group leader Conor Murphy has described the response of the NIO and PSNI to the attempted murder of Sinn Féin political activists in the Ballymena area as totally unacceptable.

Sinn Féin activist Michael Agnew's Dunfane Avenue home in Ballymena was this week targeted by unionist bombers just days after nationalist residents staged a protest against a loyalist parade through Ballymena last Saturday 5 June. Agnew had acted as spokesperson for the residents, and called for loyalist parades to be re-routed away from nationalist areas.

Agnew discovered the bomb, described as "a viable device which was made up of an eight-inch pipe bomb with a timing device attached", under a van parked outside his house at around 6am on Monday 7 June. The Sinn Féin man contacted the Samaritans before alerting neighbours.

The 54-year-old said he regularly checked under his vehicle following previous loyalist attacks in the area.

"It wasn't attached to the van so I drove it away from the device. If someone had driven over it I have no doubt they would have been seriously injured or even killed," he said.

Agnew said he had no doubt unionist paramilitaries were responsible for the attempted killing and the ongoing attacks on republicans in the Ballymena area.

A second device was discovered later at a house at Sunningdale Park in the Carniny area of Ballymena. It was left at the rear of a parked car. It was later declared a hoax.

Cobor Murphy said the PSNI and NIO response has been partial.

"In lesser attacks the PSNI in particular are quick to point the finger of blame, particularly to allege republican involvement," he pointed out.

"Yet in Ballymena, the PSNI are 'keeping an open mind' and the NIO security minister has yet to get a briefing on a situation where apparently unionist paramilitaries are able to engage in attempted murder with impunity.

"The difference in attitude from the NIO and PSNI to attacks on Sinn Féin, who represent the majority of nationalists, represents a wider and more deep-seated ambivalence to unionist paramilitary violence directed towards the nationalist community."

o Two Catholic homes in the Neillsbrook area of Randalstown, also in County Antrim, were targeted by loyalist thugs during the early hours of Saturday morning 29 May.

The loyalists paint bombed the houses and daubed crude graffiti on the walls after the incident during the early hours of Saturday morning 29 May.

Sectarian slogans, including "Taigs Out", were painted in large lettering on the walls of one home, while a number of windows were smashed in an adjacent house.

Sinn Féin South Anrim councillor Martin Meehan called for dialogue to prevent clashes at interface areas.

Loyalists disguised as Celtic supporters attack Catholic

Loyalists, one wearing a Celtic football top, attacked a Catholic man with a knife after confronting him outside the Boundary bar on the Shore Road in the Bawnmore area on Saturday night 5 June.

The two well known loyalists had been seen cruising the area in a silver car looking for intended targets and it is believed they were behind the attack, after they spotted the man leaving the bar. The man was able to push his attacker, who was armed with a knife, to the ground before running into the bar to raise the alarm.

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin assembly member for North Belfast, Kathy Stanton, has warned nationalists in the Newington area to "be on your guard" after a number of "sizeable holes" were cut in the interface fence separating the loyalist Tigers Bay and the nationalist Newtington areas.

Stanton believes loyalists cut the holes in preparation for sectarian attacks in the area.

The Sinn Féin politician also highlighted an attack on Catholic workmen in North Belfast. The men escaped injury after their work van was attacked by loyalists on the Oldpark Road on Monday morning 7 June.

Stanton said nationalists are concerned about the growing number of loyalist attacks coming into the summer. She has called on unionist leaders to do whatever is in their power to ensure a peaceful summer can be enjoyed by all.

Mother and son forced to flee

A Catholic mother and her 16-year-old son have fled their home in the Harpers Hill area of Coleraine, County Derry, after loyalists taped a notice to her back door, the latest incident in a campaign of sectarian intimidation against the family.

The family moved out of the home on Monday 31 May after six weeks of threats. It started when the woman got a letter declaring that "fenian scum" were not welcome in the estate. The Catholic mother ignored this threat and a following one, but then the loyalists began throwing stones at her house.

The intimidation then increased, with flute playing loyalists congregating outside her home.

Sinn Féin Assembly member Francie Brolly said these sectarian thugs have nothing to offer the nationalist community of Coleraine and said that unionist politicians and community workers should be publicly speaking out against the intimidation of nationalist families in Coleraine.

Belfast bonfire eyesore

Loyalist youths involved in building a bonfire on the site of a retail park on the Boucher Road in Belfast pelted motorists with stones as they drove along the road on Tuesday evening 2 June.

The bonfire site, earmarked for a new retail park, is bedecked with UVF and Young Citizen Volunteer flags and bears sectarian graffiti, including the slogan KAT (Kill All Taigs).

Sinn Féin Assembly member Michael Ferguson said he was contacted by one of his constituents, who told him that cars were being stoned by loyalists who had gathered at the site.

"It is worrying that in the heart of a retail park used by everyone in the city a bonfire has been set up," he said. Ferguson said that the company responsible for the site should remove the bonfire "before someone is seriously injured by these thugs".

He added that organisers of this bonfire need to consider celebrating their culture in other ways that are not a danger to the community.

PSNI won't act on offensive flags

Unionist paramilitary flags are sending out a threatening message to nationalists, according to Lisburn Sinn Féin Councillor Paul Butler.

He is now challenging the Police Ombudsman to investigate why the PSNI has yet to remove the loyalist flags given that PSNI supremo Hugh Orde stated publicly that his force has a new strategy in relation to flags.

Orde told a Policing Board meeting on Wednesday 3 June that flying paramilitary flags is illegal when they cause or are likely to cause a breach of the peace or are displayed in ways or circumstances that suggest support for a proscribed organisation.

Butler says the erection of Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando flags at the Cutts in Derriaghy and in Skyline Avenue in Lisburn shows the intention of unionist paramilitaries to heighten sectarian tensions coming into the marching season.

He said he failed to see how, if the PSNI can remove unionist paramilitary flags and prosecute the people who put them up in Holywood, County Down, why they can't remove these flags at Derriaghy and bring prosecutions.

"These flags are threatening to the nationalist community and will only raise sectarian tensions at a time when we should be trying to bring about a peaceful summer," he said. "The PSNI needs to deal with this issue and immediately remove flags that are causing offence."

Butler told An Phoblacht that Democratic Unionist Party MP Jeffrey Donaldson should be calling for the removal of these sectarian flags, which are associated with an organisation that has killed numerous Catholics.

Meanwhile, loyalists have been accused of marking out their territory after a large number of Union flags were erected on lamposts along Finaghy Road South in South Belfast.

And An Phoblacht has learned that a postal worker, whose delivery run takes in the Sandy Row area of South Belfast, was told he would be shot dead if he delivered Sinn Féin election literature.

The postal worker, who was delivering the freepost election literature that the post office is obliged to deliver to all homes throughout the North, was approached by a number of men who warned him he would be killed if he continued to deliver the Sinn Féin literature.

According to a post office insider, the postal worker, a Protestant, was shaken up by the threat.