7 January 1999 Edition
Orange Volunteers continue attacks
By Peadar Whelan
A Catholic workman narrowly missed death when a loyalist bomb exploded on a building site in Magherafelt in South Derry on Wednesday 6 January.
Sinn Fein Assembly member for the area John Kelly said that were it not for the man's quick thinking he (the workman) ``would be dead now''.
The booby trap had been hidden under a block which the man lifted, but he spotted the device and jumped clear. The bomb went off almost immediately, slightly injuring him.
Other workers carrying out the work at the O'Donovan Rossa's GAA club in Magherafelt suffered shock.
According to John Kelly the RUC, acting on a warning, searched the site on Tuesday but left when they found nothing.
``This is the second attack in the South Derry area in recent weeks. The home of a Catholic at nearby Knockloughrim suffered a gun and bomb attack just before Christmas,'' Kelly said.
The two attacks are almost certainly the work of the same loyalist gang as the warning about the Magherafelt bomb was issued by the Orange Volunteers, the group who said they carried out the Knockloughrim attack.
A Catholic workman narrowly missed death when a loyalist bomb exploded on a building site in Magherafelt in South Derry on Wednesday 6 January.
Sinn Fein Assembly member for the area John Kelly said that were it not for the man's quick thinking he (the workman) ``would be dead now''.
The booby trap had been hidden under a block which the man lifted, but he spotted the device and jumped clear. The bomb went off almost immediately, slightly injuring him.
Other workers carrying out the work at the O'Donovan Rossa's GAA club in Magherafelt suffered shock.
According to John Kelly the RUC, acting on a warning, searched the site on Tuesday but left when they found nothing.
``This is the second attack in the South Derry area in recent weeks. The home of a Catholic at nearby Knockloughrim suffered a gun and bomb attack just before Christmas,'' Kelly said.
The two attacks are almost certainly the work of the same loyalist gang as the warning about the Magherafelt bomb was issued by the Orange Volunteers, the group who said they carried out the Knockloughrim attack.