PRC-UTE
9th September 2005, 20:09
In a corner of Antrim another generation grows up on a diet of
sectarian hatred
Catholics forced to flee as teenagers are used to mount campaign of
arson
Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent
Tuesday September 6, 2005
The Guardian
It began late one night when Kathleen McCaughey's front door was
kicked down by two men who stormed up the stairs shouting: "Taigs
out."
"Aren't you going to call me an Orange bastard?" asked one of the
men when Mrs McCaughey, 51, who has epilepsy, came out of her
bedroom in her dressing gown.
After five months of attacks including petrol and paint bombs and a
poster campaign calling her a republican scrounger, she was given a
few hours to clear her house and leave the village of Ahoghill in
Ian Paisley's North Antrim constituency.
Protestant children had been paid £5 each to sit on her front lawn
banging drums until she caved in. If she did not go, she was told,
her row of houses would be burned down.
The town of Ballymena and its surrounding villages are in the grip
of the worst wave of anti-Catholic sectarian attacks for years and
the police have been forced to adopt the same tactics as the UN uses
in Kosovo: guarding Catholic churches, schools and Gaelic sports
clubs at night to stop them being torched.
Northern Ireland is slipping into the kind of civil strife where
people cannot tolerate the presence of their neighbours, and it is
being demonstrated at primary schools. Two Catholic schools in the
area were burned in arson attacks within 24 hours last week. The
head of Northern Ireland's community relations council has said the
police patrols are unsustainable, adding that many people would soon
start to feel they could only live in Ballymena with UN-style
protection.
Ballymena is the buckle in Northern Ireland's Bible belt, the seat
of the Paisley family and a place that has been likened to 1960s
Mississippi. It is rural, conservative, mainly born-again Christian
and predominantly Protestant. Catholics make up about 25% of the
borough.
Ballymena's most famous Catholic son, the actor Liam Neeson, has
recalled having to shelter inside during Orange parades in his youth.
But Mr Paisley, leader of the biggest unionist party in Northern
Ireland, was criticised for not condemning the anti-Catholic attacks
soon enough and doing little to engage with his community to stop
them.
Mr Paisley, who has always talked about his unbiased dedication to
the Catholics in his constituency, was accused of moral cowardice
and a lack of leadership. He returned from holiday and condemned the
attacks last week but complained that, in the past, attacks on his
church headquarters in Belfast had not been condemned by Sinn Féin.
Mark Durkan, the SDLP's leader, accused loyalist paramilitaries from
the Ulster Defence Association of orchestrating sectarian violence
in north Antrim.
Police said it was more complex than a coordinated campaign against
Catholics, adding that teenagers and young boys had been involved. A
13-year-old boy has been charged with arson following last week's
attack on St Louis' primary school which destroyed one classroom and
damaged 10 others. A 15-year-old is also being questioned. Police
have recorded 28 significant attacks against Catholics, including
two attempted murders, and 14 attacks against Protestants.
In Ahoghill, a village of about 1,000 people where most of the
attacks on Catholics took place, red, white and blue flags fly on
the grey estates.
There are scorch marks on the house of Mrs McCaughey's niece, who
was forced on to her roof when it was set ablaze in a sectarian
petrol bomb attack.
Fewer than a dozen Catholic families remain and for-sale signs have
gone up outside Catholic homes.
Many have sent word via their Protestant neighbours to their
tormentors on the estate that they are considering leaving.
Just as in other villages nearby, where police have been protecting
50 Catholic properties, sectarianism has reached the level where
bigots are unafraid to state their views but those opposed to them
are afraid to speak out.
One of Mrs McCaughey's Protestant neighbours saved her house from
being burned down by chasing a petrol bomber down the street in his
underpants. He later received two bullets in the post.
Mrs McCaughey, who plays the Gaelic game of camogie, is half
Protestant. "My mother was from [Belfast's] Shankill Road, she was
as
orange as your boot, she was in every lodge going," she said.
Like most of her siblings she married a Protestant but mixed blood
makes no difference in the latest sectarian purge.
"I said I wouldn't shift for anybody," she said. "But it just got to
me. I've lived here all my life and I had never had trouble until
this summer."
In the nearby, predominantly Protestant, suburb of Harryville, the
Catholic church has been repeatedly paint bombed and daubed with
slogans such as "Fuck the Pope" over the summer.
A group of local Protestants have helped clean the mess at the
church, which was picketed regularly by loyalists over 18 months
during the Drumcree dispute of the 1990s.
St Mary's Catholic primary school in Harryville reopened last week
after five petrol bombs were thrown into the canteen and library
causing £1,000 worth of damage.
A report by the Institute for Conflict Research shows that following
the Good Friday Agreement in 1997, sectarian violence has increased,
with more attacks on churches, Gaelic sports clubs and Orange halls
than before the ceasefires of 1994.
There have been sectarian attacks on both side of the divide in
north and east Belfast throughout the summer.
Dennis Bradley, the former Catholic priest who brokered the first
ceasefire and is now a member of the policing board, said police
alone could not solve the problem of the sectarian attacks, which he
blamed on the "nihilism of 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds" and "20- and 30-
year-olds who are quite sectarian in the sense that they cannot live
with their neighbours".
Other research recently has shown that children as young as five or
six are displaying bigoted ideas.
A generation is growing up more segregated and sectarian than its
parents.
How the attacks began
March
Campaign of intimidation against Catholic families in village of
Ahoghill begins. Police investigating a firework attack on a
Catholic home are pelted with bricks and stones.
July
Two Catholic churches in Ballymena area are paint-bombed and daubed
with sectarian graffiti, in the first of a series of church attacks
over the summer. Two Catholic-owned pubs attacked, another bar is
petrol-bombed. After petrol and paint bombs and arson threats,
Catholic families in Ahoghill begin leaving their homes. One woman
is forced on to her roof after the ground floor of her home set
alight in arson attack.
August
In an unprecedented move, police issue fire blankets to Catholic
homes in Ahoghill and tell residents how to jump out of windows in
case of sectarian arson attacks.
September
After two arson attacks in 24 hours on Catholic primary schools in
the Ballymena area, police begin night-time guard of Catholic
schools, churches and properties in local villages. Police say they
have recorded 28 significant sectarian attacks on Catholics and 14
on Protestants since March 1.
sectarian hatred
Catholics forced to flee as teenagers are used to mount campaign of
arson
Angelique Chrisafis, Ireland correspondent
Tuesday September 6, 2005
The Guardian
It began late one night when Kathleen McCaughey's front door was
kicked down by two men who stormed up the stairs shouting: "Taigs
out."
"Aren't you going to call me an Orange bastard?" asked one of the
men when Mrs McCaughey, 51, who has epilepsy, came out of her
bedroom in her dressing gown.
After five months of attacks including petrol and paint bombs and a
poster campaign calling her a republican scrounger, she was given a
few hours to clear her house and leave the village of Ahoghill in
Ian Paisley's North Antrim constituency.
Protestant children had been paid £5 each to sit on her front lawn
banging drums until she caved in. If she did not go, she was told,
her row of houses would be burned down.
The town of Ballymena and its surrounding villages are in the grip
of the worst wave of anti-Catholic sectarian attacks for years and
the police have been forced to adopt the same tactics as the UN uses
in Kosovo: guarding Catholic churches, schools and Gaelic sports
clubs at night to stop them being torched.
Northern Ireland is slipping into the kind of civil strife where
people cannot tolerate the presence of their neighbours, and it is
being demonstrated at primary schools. Two Catholic schools in the
area were burned in arson attacks within 24 hours last week. The
head of Northern Ireland's community relations council has said the
police patrols are unsustainable, adding that many people would soon
start to feel they could only live in Ballymena with UN-style
protection.
Ballymena is the buckle in Northern Ireland's Bible belt, the seat
of the Paisley family and a place that has been likened to 1960s
Mississippi. It is rural, conservative, mainly born-again Christian
and predominantly Protestant. Catholics make up about 25% of the
borough.
Ballymena's most famous Catholic son, the actor Liam Neeson, has
recalled having to shelter inside during Orange parades in his youth.
But Mr Paisley, leader of the biggest unionist party in Northern
Ireland, was criticised for not condemning the anti-Catholic attacks
soon enough and doing little to engage with his community to stop
them.
Mr Paisley, who has always talked about his unbiased dedication to
the Catholics in his constituency, was accused of moral cowardice
and a lack of leadership. He returned from holiday and condemned the
attacks last week but complained that, in the past, attacks on his
church headquarters in Belfast had not been condemned by Sinn Féin.
Mark Durkan, the SDLP's leader, accused loyalist paramilitaries from
the Ulster Defence Association of orchestrating sectarian violence
in north Antrim.
Police said it was more complex than a coordinated campaign against
Catholics, adding that teenagers and young boys had been involved. A
13-year-old boy has been charged with arson following last week's
attack on St Louis' primary school which destroyed one classroom and
damaged 10 others. A 15-year-old is also being questioned. Police
have recorded 28 significant attacks against Catholics, including
two attempted murders, and 14 attacks against Protestants.
In Ahoghill, a village of about 1,000 people where most of the
attacks on Catholics took place, red, white and blue flags fly on
the grey estates.
There are scorch marks on the house of Mrs McCaughey's niece, who
was forced on to her roof when it was set ablaze in a sectarian
petrol bomb attack.
Fewer than a dozen Catholic families remain and for-sale signs have
gone up outside Catholic homes.
Many have sent word via their Protestant neighbours to their
tormentors on the estate that they are considering leaving.
Just as in other villages nearby, where police have been protecting
50 Catholic properties, sectarianism has reached the level where
bigots are unafraid to state their views but those opposed to them
are afraid to speak out.
One of Mrs McCaughey's Protestant neighbours saved her house from
being burned down by chasing a petrol bomber down the street in his
underpants. He later received two bullets in the post.
Mrs McCaughey, who plays the Gaelic game of camogie, is half
Protestant. "My mother was from [Belfast's] Shankill Road, she was
as
orange as your boot, she was in every lodge going," she said.
Like most of her siblings she married a Protestant but mixed blood
makes no difference in the latest sectarian purge.
"I said I wouldn't shift for anybody," she said. "But it just got to
me. I've lived here all my life and I had never had trouble until
this summer."
In the nearby, predominantly Protestant, suburb of Harryville, the
Catholic church has been repeatedly paint bombed and daubed with
slogans such as "Fuck the Pope" over the summer.
A group of local Protestants have helped clean the mess at the
church, which was picketed regularly by loyalists over 18 months
during the Drumcree dispute of the 1990s.
St Mary's Catholic primary school in Harryville reopened last week
after five petrol bombs were thrown into the canteen and library
causing £1,000 worth of damage.
A report by the Institute for Conflict Research shows that following
the Good Friday Agreement in 1997, sectarian violence has increased,
with more attacks on churches, Gaelic sports clubs and Orange halls
than before the ceasefires of 1994.
There have been sectarian attacks on both side of the divide in
north and east Belfast throughout the summer.
Dennis Bradley, the former Catholic priest who brokered the first
ceasefire and is now a member of the policing board, said police
alone could not solve the problem of the sectarian attacks, which he
blamed on the "nihilism of 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds" and "20- and 30-
year-olds who are quite sectarian in the sense that they cannot live
with their neighbours".
Other research recently has shown that children as young as five or
six are displaying bigoted ideas.
A generation is growing up more segregated and sectarian than its
parents.
How the attacks began
March
Campaign of intimidation against Catholic families in village of
Ahoghill begins. Police investigating a firework attack on a
Catholic home are pelted with bricks and stones.
July
Two Catholic churches in Ballymena area are paint-bombed and daubed
with sectarian graffiti, in the first of a series of church attacks
over the summer. Two Catholic-owned pubs attacked, another bar is
petrol-bombed. After petrol and paint bombs and arson threats,
Catholic families in Ahoghill begin leaving their homes. One woman
is forced on to her roof after the ground floor of her home set
alight in arson attack.
August
In an unprecedented move, police issue fire blankets to Catholic
homes in Ahoghill and tell residents how to jump out of windows in
case of sectarian arson attacks.
September
After two arson attacks in 24 hours on Catholic primary schools in
the Ballymena area, police begin night-time guard of Catholic
schools, churches and properties in local villages. Police say they
have recorded 28 significant sectarian attacks on Catholics and 14
on Protestants since March 1.