6 September 2001 Edition
Loyalists step up activity in Derry
A laundry worker at Derry's Altnagelvin Hospital who received a death threat on his clocking in card says he is being intimidated because he is a Catholic.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he discovered the threat when he arrived at work and it consisted of a picture of a gun with the word `bang' written on it.
The worker also said that since the threat was reported to the RUC two weeks ago, ``nothing has been done to find the culprit''.
Since the man discovered the threat, he has been off work because of stress.
It is believed that as only employees of the hospital have access to the cards, it may well be that a fellow worker is behind the threat.
As the campaign against nationalists in Derry escalates, taxi drivers have been specifically targeted and taxi firms are saying that they may designate some areas of Derry as `no go' areas for drivers.
In the latest attack, on Tuesday 4 September, a Catholic driver was attacked in the Fountain area of the city. It was the third attack on a Catholic driver in a week.
Sinn Féin's Maeve McLaughlin said the attacks support the belief that ``there is an orchestrated campaign of sectarian attacks against Catholic firms''.
In the Tullyalley estate in the Waterside, three attacks have been carried out on Catholic firms in the past number of months.
These attacks on taxi drivers have come at a time when bomb attacks on Catholics living in Derry, particularly the Clooney estate, are on the increase.
Larne attacks
Since the start of the week, two sectarian attacks on Catholics in Larne have left a man in his 40s in hospital with stab wounds and a teenager beaten with iron bars.
At about 3.30pm on Monday, the Catholic man was walking in Larne town centre when he was stabbed in the back. He was set upon by a group of youths in Dunluce Street and stabbed a number of times in the back.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, a 15-year-old youth had been beaten by a gang using iron bars. The youth, who was with his cousins, was targeted by the loyalist gang as they took their dogs up the fields on the Old Glenarm Road near the Seacourt estate.
The youth received four staples in a head wound.
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, says he discovered the threat when he arrived at work and it consisted of a picture of a gun with the word `bang' written on it.
The worker also said that since the threat was reported to the RUC two weeks ago, ``nothing has been done to find the culprit''.
Since the man discovered the threat, he has been off work because of stress.
It is believed that as only employees of the hospital have access to the cards, it may well be that a fellow worker is behind the threat.
As the campaign against nationalists in Derry escalates, taxi drivers have been specifically targeted and taxi firms are saying that they may designate some areas of Derry as `no go' areas for drivers.
In the latest attack, on Tuesday 4 September, a Catholic driver was attacked in the Fountain area of the city. It was the third attack on a Catholic driver in a week.
Sinn Féin's Maeve McLaughlin said the attacks support the belief that ``there is an orchestrated campaign of sectarian attacks against Catholic firms''.
In the Tullyalley estate in the Waterside, three attacks have been carried out on Catholic firms in the past number of months.
These attacks on taxi drivers have come at a time when bomb attacks on Catholics living in Derry, particularly the Clooney estate, are on the increase.
Larne attacks
Since the start of the week, two sectarian attacks on Catholics in Larne have left a man in his 40s in hospital with stab wounds and a teenager beaten with iron bars.
At about 3.30pm on Monday, the Catholic man was walking in Larne town centre when he was stabbed in the back. He was set upon by a group of youths in Dunluce Street and stabbed a number of times in the back.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, a 15-year-old youth had been beaten by a gang using iron bars. The youth, who was with his cousins, was targeted by the loyalist gang as they took their dogs up the fields on the Old Glenarm Road near the Seacourt estate.
The youth received four staples in a head wound.
