A 29-year-old Lurgan Catholic was badly beaten by loyalist youths after an Orange march in the County Armagh town on Friday, 7 May.

The march ended at around 10.30pm on Friday night. Several people have since reported seeing gangs of loyalist youths roaming around the town centre from 12.30am onwards. The man was assaulted by one of the gangs at around 3.30am on Saturday morning.

John O'Dowd, local Sinn Féin councillor for the area has asked, ``how could such an attack take place with the large RUC presence that was in the town for the parade that evening''? He also pointed out that this was the third such attack in as many weeks.

``It would appear that loyalists in Lurgan are trying to create the same climate of fear that exists in Portadown and keep Catholics out of the town centre.''

The loyalist terror which inevitably follows loyalist parades is not confined to Lurgan and Portadown. Jim Hassan, a Concerned Residents' spokesman from Bellaghy, County Derry, was forced to leave his home late last Friday night when his wife received a phone call from the RUC at 11.45pm warning him of an Orange Volunteer bomb threat.

The threat was made just two days before the initial march of the marching season in Bellaghy.

Hassan explained that the RUC told his wife, ``to get all the family into a room that was not at the front or back of the house. I don't know what kind of house they thought I lived in''.

His wife, instead, went to a neighbour's home and after the area was searched the family was allowed to return home.

Hassan has said that he was very concerned that the RUC would not tell him if the threat was accompanied by a recognised code word. The parade itself did not pass through the nationalist area of the town but following the parade a number of marchers drove through the area making obscene gestures at locals.

Sinn Féin to meet Parades Commission

A Sinn Féin delegation is to meet with the Parades Commission to discuss the continued parades issue in Lurgan.

The delegation, made up of Assembly Member Dr. Dara O'Hagan and councillors Francie Murray and John O'Dowd, are to show the commission video evidence of Friday night's parade and to discuss their own observations of the night's events.

O'Hagan said: ``The present situation cannot continue. Businesses that rely on weekend night trade are being slowly crippled while nationalists are becoming increasingly wary of entering the town centre at night''.

She pointed out that the rulings made by the Parades Commission on these parades are continually being breached by both bands and the Orange Order and the only people who are being penalised are those who are not taking part.

O'Hagan said that a number of nationalists were severely assaulted by the RUC while walking away from the parade area, and that reports on these attacks are to be handed over to Amnesty International.