5.9.04
Sunday Life
Battering ram attack 'a loyalist warning'
By Alan Murray
05 September 2004
THE ramming of a north Belfast pub with a digger was a "warning" to republicans, loyalists have claimed.
UDA sources say the assault on the 32 Degrees North pub in Ardoyne was a warning that they will mount more attacks, if Protestants are targeted.
UDA sources said the incident was an indication that loyalist paramilitary groups were prepared to go on the offensive.
The Red Hand Defenders admitted the bar attack, and the sending of bullets to members of Sinn Finn, two days earlier.
It is understood the UDA's 'brigadier' in north Belfast gave the go-ahead for the assault, following the departure of the last Protestant families from the Torrens area.
One UDA figure said: "Over the 30 years of IRA terrorism, Torrens remained a unionist area, but after 10 years of the so-called peace process it is wiped out. What does that tell you about the Sinn Fein peace process?
"There have been attacks against bandsmen, the Orange Order, or, isolated Protestant families, and it has caused mounting anger.
"Loyalists aren't going to allow any other unionist areas to be cleared, and there will be more responses to nationalist aggression."
The PUP's Billy Hutchinson said he was more pessimistic about the situation than before the summer, and said he feared relations would worsen.
"There's a lot of pressure on the IRA in Ardoyne from the INLA and the Real IRA, and I've no doubt that some republicans have been involved in carrying out or orchestrating the attacks in Torrens and at Twadell Avenue.
"All the paramilitary organisations could be drawn into this, and people need to be very careful about what they are doing because the situation could deteriorate further very quickly."
Battering ram attack 'a loyalist warning'
By Alan Murray
05 September 2004
THE ramming of a north Belfast pub with a digger was a "warning" to republicans, loyalists have claimed.
UDA sources say the assault on the 32 Degrees North pub in Ardoyne was a warning that they will mount more attacks, if Protestants are targeted.
UDA sources said the incident was an indication that loyalist paramilitary groups were prepared to go on the offensive.
The Red Hand Defenders admitted the bar attack, and the sending of bullets to members of Sinn Finn, two days earlier.
It is understood the UDA's 'brigadier' in north Belfast gave the go-ahead for the assault, following the departure of the last Protestant families from the Torrens area.
One UDA figure said: "Over the 30 years of IRA terrorism, Torrens remained a unionist area, but after 10 years of the so-called peace process it is wiped out. What does that tell you about the Sinn Fein peace process?
"There have been attacks against bandsmen, the Orange Order, or, isolated Protestant families, and it has caused mounting anger.
"Loyalists aren't going to allow any other unionist areas to be cleared, and there will be more responses to nationalist aggression."
The PUP's Billy Hutchinson said he was more pessimistic about the situation than before the summer, and said he feared relations would worsen.
"There's a lot of pressure on the IRA in Ardoyne from the INLA and the Real IRA, and I've no doubt that some republicans have been involved in carrying out or orchestrating the attacks in Torrens and at Twadell Avenue.
"All the paramilitary organisations could be drawn into this, and people need to be very careful about what they are doing because the situation could deteriorate further very quickly."
