Loyalist Paramilitary Intimidation in North Belfast Must Be Confronted, Says Irvine

A Catholic family has just been forced from their home in North Belfast by masked men linked to the UDA. The PSNI knows who they are. The community knows who they are. Yet they continue to cruise estates with their faces covered, posturing like paramilitary landlords, while ordinary families are told to get out.

This isn’t just yet another failure on the PSNI’s part, it’s a political scandal. In recent weeks alone, we’ve seen multiple cases of Catholics being assaulted or threatened from their homes by loyalists, a young autistic man ambushed in the Waterside in Derry, a heavily pregnant woman forced out of her home in Tildarg Avenue in West Belfast and a coordinated harassment campaign against Catholic families in a mixed area of Lisburn. When this happened in 1969, it was called a pogrom.

Skegoneill is a working-class, mixed community where Protestant and Catholic neighbours have lived side by side for decades. The people want peace, not paramilitary rule. However, peace means nothing if loyalists are still allowed to terrorise with total impunity.

True Republicans stand in the tradition of Wolfe Tone. We know the enemy is not your neighbour from a different Church. The enemy is the criminal who uses flags and fear to divide working-class communities, often as a cover for drug dealing, as well as the political system that enables them. But the greatest enemy is the one pushing agendas that drive social collapse and poverty for personal gain, while deepening the sectarian divide to keep us distracted and divided.

ENDS

Statement originally issued while serving as an Aontú representative.