In our document on Rosemary Nelson, we included an appendix that listed all known loyalist attacks from 1 January 1999 through 30 April 1999. Given the nature of the document the list focused on loyalist attacks. Since that time, we have continued to document attacks across the North, expanding our remit to include all attacks that might be considered sectarian (sometimes, however, the motives aren’t always clear.)
The following list of sectarian attacks is from 1 September through 1 October 1999. Should any incidents have inadvertently been left off the list please contact us. The issue of inclusion/exclusion is very problematic. For instance this document does not include punishment beatings 'within' a community, attacks by the security forces on civilians or by civilians on the security forces or murders where the perpetrators are believed to be from the same community and the motive is not thought to have been sectarian. We have also not included violent incidents connected to feuding within loyalism.
We will update this list each month.
September 1 – The Irish News reports that the SDLP is "seeking urgent talks with the chief constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan amid fears the RUC is not committed to tackling loyalist attacks on Catholics in Larne."
Meetings are also being urged with secretary of state Mo Mowlam and security minister Alan Ingram.
Two men rescued an 11-year-old boy from a sectarian attack in Belfast. The boy, returning from his second day at a new school, had accidentally boarded the wrong bus. After being ordered off the bus by the bus driver, the boy was forced to walk home. As he passed the Hillview industrial estate on the Oldpark Road, he was set upon by four youths. The youths identified him as a Catholic by the badge on his blazer.
The boy sustained serious bruising to his face and eye.
The family has strongly criticised the bus driver and is seeking legal advice.
The Rathmore Grammar School in Dunmurry came under arson attack for the fifth time in six years.
"This was a well planned and deliberate attack …" said Sister Ursula Canavan, principal of the school.
Sinn Fein councillor Paul Butler said the fire bore all the hallmarks of a sectarian attack.
September 2 – A SDLP delegation of assembly members met with RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan to discuss the upsurge of loyalist attacks across the North and the lack of arrests following the attacks.
While the attacks in Larne have been the most publicised, the SDLP’s Brid Rodgers said there was also cause for concern in areas such as Banbridge, Antrim and Belfast.
Assembly member Patricia Lewsley also expressed concern over the increased sectarian attacks in the Dunmurry area.
September 7 – The trial of Garfield Gilmour from Newhill, Ballymoney (Co. Antrim) begins. Gilmour stands accused of the murder of Jason (9), Mark (10) and Richard Quinn (11.) The Quinn brothers died when fire swept through their home after a petrol bomb was thrown through the living room window.
Gilmour also stands accused of the attempted murder of the boys’ mother, her then boyfriend and a family friend.
The attack occurred on the night of 12 July 1998 – the height of the summer’s crisis at Drumcree. It received world-wide media attention because of the horrific nature of the hate crime.
They young boys were from a Catholic family but went to a predominantly Protestant school and lived in a mainly Protestant estate. The attack on their home was nakedly sectarian.
September 8 – The Irish News runs a special report highlighting the situation in Larne, Co. Antrim. The article can be accessed here:
September 9 – Three boys between the ages of 15 and 16 attack a 13-year-old Catholic girl from the Whitewell area of north Belfast. She was first shot in the stomach with a pellet gun and was then kicked to the ground and beaten with baseball bats. The girl’s attackers also verbally abused her and made specific reference to her religion.
The girl suffered extensive bruising to her legs and bears a mark on her stomach from the pellet. She was treated at the Mater Hospital immediately after the attack.
"Those people hate us, they are brought up to hate us, and this attack is nothing new to Catholics living here," said the girl’s father.
September 12 – According to Larne SDLP assembly member Danny O’Connor, a group of about 10 loyalists stood outside his home chanting "Come out, you Fenian bastard" and "Danny, you are a dead man". Two loyalists also kicked in the taillights of his car.
"It’s an attempt to silence me and stop me from speaking about what’s happening in this town."
Mr. O’Connor has been outspoken about sectarian attacks in Larne. His home has been the target of a number of attacks in recent weeks.
The RUC arrested two men following the disturbances. The men are expected to appear before Larne magistrates’ court in early October.
September 13 – The following editorial on sectarian attacks appears in the Irish News:
September 14 – Garfield Gilmour, the man accused of being behind the triple murder of the Quinn brothers, claimed that loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was, in fact, responsible for the attack.
The accusations were made as Gilmour’s trial draws to a close. Lord Chief Justice McCollum will reserve his judgement on Gilmour.
September 15 – Catholic-owned businesses in Co. Antim were subject to a number of incendiary bomb attacks. One device exploded in a furniture shop in Ballycastle while two others were defused at an off-licence in Ballycastle and a Credit Union finance agency in Ballymoney.
An Orange hall in Donaghmore, Co. Down, came under arson attack in the early hours of the morning. The hall – the Ramton Memorial hall – suffered smoke damage in the attack. The perpetrators also daubed the exterior walls of the hall with the letters "RIRA" (i.e., "Real I.R.A. – alleged to be close to the 32 County Sovereignty Movement.)
It was the third in a series of attacks on Orange halls in the area since July; it was the second time the Ramton Memorial hall had been attacked in five years.
September 17 – A series of sectarian petrol bomb attacks were carried out in the Kilfennan area of Derry’s Waterside. The main victims of the attacks were couples involved in mixed relationships. Attacks were also carried out in the Winchester Park and the Sperrin Park areas of the Waterside. Extensive damage was done to both homes and cars.
"What we are witnessing is naked sectarianism which is designed to intimidate Catholics and their partners and drive them from their homes," said Sinn Fein’s Lynn Flemming.
September 18 – Homes and cars belonging to Catholics in Carrickfergus were vandalised. The windows of four houses and three cars along Westmount Avenue were smashed by a gang of youths wielding sticks and bats.
According to the Irish News, "Catholics in Carrickfergus have been increasingly targeted by loyalist gangs in the last year."
September 20 – A Catholic home on the Springfield Road in west Belfast came under attack. The home, which is along one of Belfast’s many "peacelines", had its side bay window smashed by a bit of wood. A three-month-old baby girl was sleeping near the window at the time but she escaped injury.
According to the baby’s mother, the family’s house and car have been attacked before. She claimed that the roof of the house is pelted with bricks and bottles on almost a nightly basis.
Another editorial on sectarian attacks appears in the Irish News:
Sectarian attacks cannot continue
September 21 – SDLP assembly member Carmel Hanna calls on security minister Adam Ingram to allocate more police resources to deal with the growing problem of sectarian attacks.
September 22 – The Irish News carries an article about more sectarian intimidation in Portadown. A teenage girl from Armagh was forced to quit her job in Portadown town centre because of the intimidation.
The girl was spat upon and suffered repeated verbal abuse. Her mother branded Portadown town centre a "no-go area for Catholics."
The Irish News also carries an article claiming that the Democratic Unionist Party leader, Ian Paisley, has asked to meet Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to discuss sectarian attacks on Free Presbyterian church property in the South. While Paisley is said to be concerned about a number of "incidents", the article only mentions a July 4th petrol bomb attack on the Corrygarry Free Presbyterian Church in Co. Monaghan.
September 24 – T he Progressive Unionist Party denies that the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) ordered four Catholic families out of Neillsbrook estate in Randalstown, Co. Antrim. The threats, sent to the families earlier in the week, were signed by the UVF and read:
This is no idle threat – get out or be put out.
We have done it before and we will do it again. You have two weeks to put up a for sale sign. The police cannot protect you 24 hours. There is no second chance.
September 27 – The following article on sectarian attacks on Protestant churches in the 26 Counties appears in the Irish News:
Church attacks leave a legacy of fear
September 28 – At a press conference in Belfast, Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble condemned the recent upsurge in loyalist attacks on the Catholic community. He said:
There is never a right or wrong time to highlight the continuing savagery of loyalist paramilitaries supposedly observing ceasefires. We in the Ulster Unionist Party are very mindful of the attacks on the Catholic community by loyalists, particularly in parts of Co. Antrim and Co. Armagh. Such attacks earn our total condemnation and stain the name of loyalism."
September 30 – The Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute a number of RUC officers present when 25-year-old Robert Hamill was beaten unconscious in a sectarian attack in Portadown town centre (5/97). It is claimed that the DPP took the decision because there was no reasonable prospect of convicting any of the officers.
Robert Hamill never regained consciousness and died days later from his injuries.
For more information on his murder, including British Irish Rights Watch’s submissions to the United Nations Special Rapporteur, please see our web site at:
Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley travelled to Dublin and met – for the first time – with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. The DUP leader, who also happens to be the head of the Free Presbyterian Church, had arranged the meeting to discuss attacks on Free Presbyterian churches in the South of Ireland.
He later described his meeting as "useful and forthright".
Addendum:
Mid September – A Protestant teen from the Waterside area of Derry was approached in a Cityside pub in Magazine Street, called a "Jaffa bastard" (a derogatory term for a Protestant) and told to get out.
The harassment continued until the young man felt it best to leave the premises.
Soon after leaving, he was set upon by a number of Catholic youths in the Castle Street area; the group included the young man who had first threatened him.
The teen was beaten unconscious. By chance a taxi in which there was a nurse passed him lying near the corner of Castle Street and Shipquay Street. The taxi stopped and the nurse tended to him. He was then brought to the local hospital.
The sad irony of the situation is that the young man was first accosted in a pub named after a United Irishman Henry Joy McCracken – a Presbyterian. It also happened to be the first time he had ventured over to the Cityside of Derry for a night out.
The young man’s mother is a friend of the Pat Finucane Centre. We wish her son a speedy recovery.
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Sectarianism in Scotland –
Bigotry claim backed by Scots in paper poll
(Irish News, 7/9/99)
A third of Scots questioned in a poll agreed with a leading composer’s controversial claim that Scotland is riven with anti-Catholic bigotry.
The survey found that 34 per cent of people agreed that bigotry is deep-rooted. Only 13 per cent of those agreed strongly, and 45 per cent disagreed.
They were asked if they agreed with the statement: "There is a deep-rooted anti-Catholic attitude throughout Scottish society."
Composer James MacMillan claimed at the Edinburgh Festival last month that Catholics are sidelined and trivialised, and accused Scots of "sleep walking bigotry".
The Herald newspaper’s System Three poll found 43 per cent of Labour voters agreed with the statement, 24 per cent of Conservatives, 37 per cent of Lib Dems, and 27 per cent of nationalists.
Only 11 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds agreed strongly with the statement compared to 18 per cent of 35 to 54-year-olds and 10 per cent of those over 55.
Father Tom Connelly, a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland, said: "This poll shows Mr. MacMillan clearly aroused a great interest in the question of bigotry and if nothing else it has made individual Scots reflect a little on their own personal attitude towards people of other races and religions."
Scotland has around 800,000 Catholics and about half of Catholic marriages are now thought to be mixed.
There is thought to be little segregation between faiths in modern Scotland, in contrast to past divisions and discrimination, especially in the west of the country.
And the following articles dealing with the sectarian murder of a young Glasgow Celtic fan appeared in the Irish News:
18/9 – Celtic fan sang song as he bled to death
21/9 – I’m no monster
22/9 – Celtic fan murderer jailed & editorial