Unionist gangs attack Tyrone fans

Unionists launched a series of sectarian attacks against Tyrone GAA supporters returning from the All-Ireland Final on Sunday 25 September

A two-year-old boy was hit in the face with a bottle after a mob attacked the car in which he was travelling, while in separate attacks in County Derry a number of people were squirted with petrol by a youth wielding a water pistol.

Also a seven-year-old boy needed hospital treatment and a 12-year-old girl was treated for shock after cars and buses flying Tyrone flags were attacked in Armagh and Cookstown.

The two-year-old who was injured was travelling in a car, which was flying a Tyrone flag, with his mother and grandmother when a bottle smashed one of its windows at around 9pm on Sunday. The incident happened in Hospital Street, Omagh.

The boy needed treatment for cuts to his head. Shortly after the attack a car pulled up alongside the family and warned them they would face "more of the same" if they didn't take the flag down.

In Campsie, County Derry a woman carrying a Tyrone flag was squirted with petrol by a unionist youth wielding a water pistol. In the same area, a woman reported that a youth wearing a Glasgow Rangers football top and balaclava jumped in front of her car and pointed a water pistol at her while another man claimed the same thing happened to him.

Hospital treatment

A seven-year-old boy needed hospital treatment for facial injuries after stones were thrown at a 15-seater bus at Edenaveys on the Newry Road in Armagh. A 12-year old girl was treated for shock.

An Phoblacht has learned that sectarian attacks against Tyrone football fans in Cookstown were orchestrated by a number of unionists questioned last month by the PSNI about the killing of GAA official Seán Brown in 1997. The LVF was responsible for killing the Bellaghy Wolfe Tones' official after they kidnapped him as he locked up at the club.

A car was set alight in the largely unionist Old Town area and cars displaying Tyrone GAA flags and travelling through the area were attacked. A number of vehicles were damaged.

Also on Sunday a Tyrone family had their car attacked by unionists on the forecourt of a garage on the outskirts of Dungannon. The family from Beragh, were left shaken after a group of loyalists smashed up their car, breaking a number of windows.