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18 September 1997 Edition

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Bullet in post for Ardoyne family

By Mick Naughton.

Last Saturday morning's post brought fear to a young Ardoyne family when they opened a brown envelope posted on 11 September and found a Russian made Kynocm 7.65 bullet inside. Accompanying it was a note addressed to a North Belfast republican who does not live at the address telling him to ``watch your back, because we are.'' It continued, ``we have enclosed a present, plenty more, but sadly for you, not in the post. Your old pals on the Shankill.''

For the young family, who do not wish to be named, the fear continues as the man against whom the threat was made never lived at their address. As a mark of their concern they not only contacted local Sinn Fein councillor Mick Conlon, but also a loyalist party office where a loyalist glibly dismissed their worries, saying, ``it is when you don't get a warning that you need to worry.''

With over 100 civilians killed by loyalist death squads in Ardoyne, the family naturally did not accept this dismissal of their fears.

``It was that much of a shock, we are still walking about in a daze. We just wanted the bullet out of the house on account of the children. My husband thought at first it was a toy, but we did not know what to do. Our worry is that something worse is to follow.''

The Royal Mail Belfast recognising the seriousness of the situation agreed to check the family's mail after the incident was raised with them by councillor Conlon.

``We did go to the police,'' the young mother said, ``but they said there was absolutely nothing they could do about it.''

Conlon who visited both the family and the man threatened warned residents to be on their guard.
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