BULLETS IN THE POST | DEATH THREATS TO CELTIC MANAGER AND PLAYERS AND . .

Sectarian attacks that don’t make national news headlines

BY PEADAR WHELAN

Niall McGinn, Neil Lennon and Paddy McCourt

THE news that 600 people clicked on a Facebook page calling for Celtic FC manager Neil Lennon to be shot is yet another dimension to the pervasive sectarianism that inhabits sections of unionism to this day.

The page (closed down after two days) was appealing for the support of “100,000 that want to see Neil Lennon get shot”.

Some might dismiss this as the work of a ‘social networking nutter’ but given that Lennon and two of his Celtic players, Niall McGinn and Paddy McCourt – both Northern Catholics – have had bullets sent to them in the post then it is clear someone is sending them a clear message. The roadway outside Lennon’s Glasgow home has been daubed with sectarian death threats and UVF slogans in bright yellow paint.
This threat to the Celtic trio was uncovered when packages containing the bullets and addressed to them were intercepted at Royal Mail sorting offices in Belfast and Glasgow in the week after Celtic beat Rangers in the first ‘Old Firm’ derby of the new year. All three packages were posted in the North.
However, the news of these discoveries are only the tip of a sectarian iceberg which receives more column inches due to the high profile of Lennon, McCourt and McGinn and the huge following that Celtic has amongst soccer fans and in the media.
Over the weekend that the bullets threat was being highlighted, the homes of a number of Catholic families were being attacked in the County Derry village of Garvagh.
A young Catholic mother had to flee her home at 2am on Saturday morning 8th January when sectarian arsonists torched the family car parked at the front door of the family home.
In the same Killyvally estate, the home of a couple in a mixed marriage suffered scorch damage in a petrol bomb attack, also in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Across the county border from Garvagh, in County Antrim, the sectarian ‘night riders’ were also abroad. This time they left hoax bombs at a community centre at Crosskeys Road near Portglenone and the adjacent GAA grounds. Also the local Catholic primary school in Ahoghill was targeted. The device at the Portglenone GAA club was found by a 15-year-old.
In a challenge to those orchestrating these attacks, Sinn Féin Assembly member for the constituency Daithí McKay said:
“You have nothing to offer the people of Antrim.
“Only last year, loyalists in the south-west Antrim area were behind an organised campaign of sectarian intimidation in which they targeted Catholic homes, GAA clubs and churches.
“This sectarianism was driven by the fact that the Parades Commission restricted a loyalist band parade through Rasharkin.
“I just hope that the attacks of the last week are not an indication of what loyalism has to offer in 2011”.
One of the most serious incidents to have occurred late last year was the case of eight-year-old Brendan Shannon.
A pupil at St Comgall’s Primary School in Antrim town, Brendan arrived at school in the first week of the new term, spotted a “golden pipe thing” and picked it up. It turned out he was handling a deadly explosive device.
“I just got off my bike and just touched it to see. I just lifted it up and nothing was on the wire or rope. It wasn’t going down or burning so I just tried to find someone to tell them.”
Said Brendan’s father Gerard later:
“You don’t send your kids out to school in the morning thinking that someone is going to try and kill them and their little friends.”
The attack at St Comgall’s was part of a double assault on children as nearby St Joseph’s Primary and an adjoining nursery were also evacuated when a device was found.
The tension generated by the annual Ballymaconnelly Sons of Conquerors loyalist band parade, which takes place in Rasharkin at the end of August, ensured that tension would be high in the towns and villages around south Antrim.
As well as the bombs left at the schools in Antrim town, there were a number of incidents in Rasharkin village. The home of Chris Baird, who plays soccer for English club Fulham and the Six Counties, was petrol-bombed.
That incident, on Sunday 19th September, was followed by another when a bullet was put through the letter of a Protestant woman living in Belmont Park.
Said Daithí McKay at the time:
“I have no issue with sitting down with the DUP to address this matter or standing before the cameras with members of the DUP to condemn these attacks outright. Hopefully the DUP is up for the challenge.”
And Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuinness has pressed other parties for a ‘united front against hate crimes’ following arson attacks this in recent weeks against Orange halls in County Tyrone.
McGuinness, MP for Mid-Ulster, and Michelle Gildernew, MP for Fermanagh & South Tyrone, denounced the attacks. They are, they said, motivated solely by sectarian hatred.
Michelle Gildernew said that the arsonists who attacked Strawletterdallon, Dergina and Mullnahunch Orange do not reflect the community in Tyrone or the wider area.
“Those who carried them out are motivated solely by sectarian bigotry.
“They are no different to those who carry out attacks on GAA halls, churches and other cultural and community facilities.”
Martin McGuinness said:
“These attacks are wrong and they are unacceptable.
“Unfortunately, in recent years we have witnessed numerous attacks on churches, Orange halls and GAA clubs. All of these must be and have been rightly condemned by all political parties.”
Those responsible for the attacks on Orange halls are – like those who attack Catholic schools, churches and GAA clubs – are motivated solely by sectarian hatred and by a desire to see community tensions increased, the deputy First Minister said.
“Our task as political leaders is to ensure this does not happen. That means taking the lead not just in condemning such attacks but also in engaging in dialogue with each other and promoting a united front against these hate crimes.”