4 March 1999 Edition
Residents dismay at removal of security gates
by Dan O'Neill.
The Springfield Residents Action Group has condemned a decision by the RUC to remove security gates at Colinward Street at a time of increasing loyalist attacks on nationalists in Belfast.
The street is located directly across from Lanark Way, a main thoroughfare connecting the Shankill and Springfield Roads, which was a main escape route used by loyalists who attacked nationalists in the area.
A spokesperson for the residents group, John Mc Givern, criticised the RUC for not consulting the residents before the removal of the gates, ``on Wednesday 24 February the people of Colinward Street, awoke to find the security gates at the top of the street had been removed. When they approached the workmen to find out in whose authority they were acting, they were told by one of the workmen that he did not know anything about it.''
Residents later found out that Inspector Joe Cooke of Grosvenor Road RUC station gave the go-ahead for the removal of the gates, which were erected after a loyalist assassination in the area.
Mr McGivern expressed concern that the community was now vulnerable to a loyalist attack, ``this is complete madness considering the endless murders, shootings and attacks on this community from loyalists via Lanark Way and surrounding area.The other disturbing facts are that the marching season is approaching once again and the people of this area will directly be affected by the nightly attacks by loyalists across the so-called peace wall.
``With pupils from St. Johns Primary School now wide open to attacks from loyalists and the Catholic Church wanting to build a new primary school on Lanark Way, right on the `peace-line, it now seems that our children are being held as political hostages, by both the RUC and Catholic Church'', he concluded.
The Springfield Residents Action Group has condemned a decision by the RUC to remove security gates at Colinward Street at a time of increasing loyalist attacks on nationalists in Belfast.
The street is located directly across from Lanark Way, a main thoroughfare connecting the Shankill and Springfield Roads, which was a main escape route used by loyalists who attacked nationalists in the area.
A spokesperson for the residents group, John Mc Givern, criticised the RUC for not consulting the residents before the removal of the gates, ``on Wednesday 24 February the people of Colinward Street, awoke to find the security gates at the top of the street had been removed. When they approached the workmen to find out in whose authority they were acting, they were told by one of the workmen that he did not know anything about it.''
Residents later found out that Inspector Joe Cooke of Grosvenor Road RUC station gave the go-ahead for the removal of the gates, which were erected after a loyalist assassination in the area.
Mr McGivern expressed concern that the community was now vulnerable to a loyalist attack, ``this is complete madness considering the endless murders, shootings and attacks on this community from loyalists via Lanark Way and surrounding area.The other disturbing facts are that the marching season is approaching once again and the people of this area will directly be affected by the nightly attacks by loyalists across the so-called peace wall.
``With pupils from St. Johns Primary School now wide open to attacks from loyalists and the Catholic Church wanting to build a new primary school on Lanark Way, right on the `peace-line, it now seems that our children are being held as political hostages, by both the RUC and Catholic Church'', he concluded.