Ongoing violence against schoolchildren in north Belfast is part of a greater programme to rid the area of Catholics, said a Sinn Fein councillor today. He also said that unless political parties help provide employment for the loyalist community the sectarian attacks would continue.

Eoin O’Broin, based in north Belfast, said the attacks on Catholics were in a bid to drive them out and reinforce segregation. In one of the most recent attacks, a 17-year-old youth managed to escape from an attempted abduction, when three men tried to bundle him into a car. Eoin O’Broin has warned people to be careful during this continuing period of unrest.

He believes a joint programme is being carried out by both political and paramilitary parties. It’s aim is to segregate the area into that of catholic and protestant streets.

The violent attacks being carried out are commonly know to be that of the UDA, using physical force to drive Catholics out of areas they deem to be theirs.

‘Last Sunday 12 pipe bombs were thrown. The UDA are using violence to demarcate boundaries,’ he said.

Pipe bombs continue to be thrown at Catholic homes, resulting in one woman being forced out after the third attack in five weeks. The attacks witnessed at the Holy Cross School are another visible element of this. Local resident groups have stated that catholic children should use another school out of the area.

Along with this programme, the DUP he believes are also attempting the same, O’Broin stating they ‘are trying to segregate our city’. Recently they suggested a local park be divided up and they also support the idea of the Holy Cross School closing and being replaced by a protestant school.

As a result, he says the DUP are playing a game of ‘negative politics’ designed to win support.

‘They are doing exactly what the BNP did in East London, playing on real fears within the working class loyalist community.
‘Holy Cross is just the most graphic example of a deeper set of problems in north Belfast’.

While not condoning the attacks, O’Broin can sympathise with the loyalist community, believing they are experiencing ‘what nationalists have always experienced’. A loss of jobs over the last decade, abandonment by the Ulster Unionist Party, and a deteriorating relationship with the RUC have resulted in a deep-set fear from within the community. Unless somebody addresses this, working-class loyalist communities will continue, he believes, to respond in this way.