Tag: Molotov cocktail

Loyalists troll Twelfth TV documentary teen

A TEENAGER has been bombarded with threatening and abusive messages from loyalist internet trolls after appearing in a BBC documentary about the Twelfth. Tania Lavery was forced to delegate her Twitter account after receiving a barrage of of offensive messages including death threats and rape threats.

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The 19-year-old took part in the BBC Three show Petrol Bombs and Peace: Welcome 🙂 mentto Belfast which focused on Twelfth of July tensions in the north of the city. One alarming image posted following the broadcast on Monday evening attempted to identify her Ardoyne home. Ms Lavery’s experience comes amid increasing concern over Twitter trolls – people who send abusive messages using the social network – threatening rape and violence against women. Labour MP Stella Crash is among a host of high-profile recent targets. Earlier this week it also emerged that 14-year-old Leicestershire scoolgirl Hanna Smith had taken her own life as a result of relentless cyber bullying on the Ask.FM social-networking site. Ms Lavery, a former pupil of Holy Cross Primary School, said she is afraid to be in her own home and has had difficulty sleeping since receiving the death threats.

“A man wrote that he hopes I get raped at the bus stop and talked about how I’m a tramp, that I’m a bigoted scumbag,” she said. “My phone literally wouldn’t stop because I had over a hundred friend requests on Facebook. “They found my Twitter and they found my YouTube because I sing and they are making fun of it. “I deleted my Twitter because people were just making up lies.” The documentary followed BBC reporter Alys Harte as she spoke to Orange bandsmen and young Catholics in Ardoyne ahead of this year’s Twelfth. Ms Slavery and her friend Rosin Holmes (18), are from a Catholic background, gave their views and told of their experiences. Both have since received abuse online. Ms Slavery said she was determined to cope with the threats. “They think that all this stuff is going to change who I am but it’s not,” she said. “Yes, I am afraid to be in my house and I’m afraid to go outside on my own but it’s not going to change me.” Ms Slavery said some Orange men involved in the programs had sent her supportive messages online. “The guy that messaged me said we should all go for a drink sometime, even though we were both on the show and we clearly had different opinions,” she said.

With many thanks to : Brendan Hughes, The Irish News.

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LOYALISTS ATTACK POLICE AND NATIONALIST HOMES

Petrol bombs and blast bombs thrown

LOYALISTS threw blast bombs and petrol bombs at police and attacked nationalist homes in east Belfast during a fourth night of rioting.

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Masked loyalist hurls Blast-Bomb at police lines on the Woodvale Road area of North Belfast.

Despite appeals for calm from police and politicians a pipe bomb was thrown at officers in north Belfast and loyalist rioters attacked police in south Belfast last night. Police fired at least one baton round and used water connon on rioters on lower Newtownards Road in the east of the city after attacks on homes in the nationalist Short Strand area. Masked men threw four blast bombs from the loyalist Pitt Park area at police on lower Newtownards Road. Noone was injured. Up to 50 rioters threw stones stones and other missiles at police in the Glenmachan Street and Broadway areas of South Belfast. In North Belfast hundreds of loyalists, many wearing Orange regalia, blocked Twaddell Avenue for several hours and up to three bands walked up the road playing The Sash. Loyalists threw petrol bombs and missiles at police near the Mount Vernon estate and a vehicle was set alight. Loyalist protesters blocked roads in the Corcrain area of Portadown, Co Armagh, including a junction with the nationalist Garvaghy Road.

In Derry officers seized 20 paint bombs during a whiteline protest by loyalists on the main Glendermott and Limavady Roads. Paint was thrown at two Protestant churches in Derry erarlier yesterday, an attack condemned by Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. Early yesterday evening police narrowly escaped serious injury after a pipe bomb expolded close to officers in north Belfast. The device was thrown from the nationalist Brompton Park area of Ardoyne at police on Crumlin Road at about 5pm yesterday. Noone was injured in the attack, which was swiftly condemned by nationalist and unionist politicians. A seven-year-old was on the street at the time of the attack, Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly said. Superintendent Emma Bond said the bomb could have badly injured officers. “We consider ourselves extremely fortunate that we are not dealing with a much more serious incident and that all the officers were able to walk away from the situation unharmed,” she said. Loyalists held demonstrations across Belfast and other towns last night in protest at the Parades Commission’s decision to block Orangemen and bands from parading past Ardoyne shops on the evening of the Twelfth. Protests were held on Shankill Road in West Belfast, Sandy Row and Castlereagh Street in east Belfast as well as in Dondonald and Antrim.

With many thanks to : Claire Simpson and Connia Young, The Irish News.

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THIRD NIGHT OF ATTACKS ON SHORT STRAND HOMES

HOMES in the Short Strand area of east Belfast have come under attack with petrol bombs for a third night in a row.

Short Strand need your support

Tensions have been high at the interface between the nationalist Short Strand and loyalist Clean Place area. On Monday night missiles and petrol bombs were again thrown over the peace wall and onto Bryson Street. No-one was injured in the attack. A similar attack at the weekend resulted in a four-year-old girl narrowly escaping injury when a petrol bomb landed in the garden she was playing in. Sinn Fein councillor Niall O Donnghaile said people in the area are angry that to date “not a single arrest has been made”. “After three months of failing this ccommunity during the flag protests, the PSNI must be seen to act to deal with those hell bent on attacking family homes,” he said.

“All residents living across both sides of the interface have to be able to live in peace in their own homes. “Once again I am calling on the political leadership of unionism and loyalism to state clearly that these attacks must stop immediately.” Alliance Party councillor Maire Hendron said it was “unsettling that some still felt the need to resort to these violent measures, rather that engaging across the community to find a lasting peacefulsolution”. “We cannot allow those opposed to a shared future and a better Northern Ireland to dictate how we live within our communities,” she said. “It is incidents like these that deflect attention away from the good community work across the area.”

With many thanks to : Allison Morris, Irish News.

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Irish Republican News

Entrance to Short Strand
Image via Wikipedia

>>>>>> Flash: Shots fired at St Matthews
 Shots have been fired by loyalists tonight towards St Matthew‘s chapel
 amid a serious assault by unionist paramilitaries on the nationalist
 Short Strand.

 Dozens of petrol bombs have also been thrown and several homes have
 sustained fire damage, while at least one PSNI police landrover was also
 engulfed in flames.

 Buckets of water and sand have been used to quell the flames, which are
 now reported to be extinguished. However, scores of residents,
 particularly pensioners, have been forced to flee their bungalow homes.

 Republicans from other areas have successfully made their way to the
 area to assist in the defence, and a large crowd is now present, and
 fighting has become sporadic. However, there are still concerns that the
 rioting, the worst seen in east Belfast for several years, could
 intensify and spread.

 The immediate motivation behind the assault on the Short Strand,
 involving by up to 200 masked paramilitaries on three fronts, remains
 unclear. Loyalists dressed in military fatigues were seen nearby earlier
 today, engaged in training exercises in apparent preparation for
 tonight’s highly organised attack, some wearing surgical gloves and
 carrying weapons.

 Earlier tonight, continuous fireworks and a number of blast bombs
 exploded in the area, while up to 12 shots were heard. Both gunshots and
 petrol bombs were directed by loyalists towards St Matthew’s Chapel,
 where republicans struggling to defend the church clashed briefly with
 the PSNI.

 There were also simultaneous attacks by loyalists on Catholic homes in
 two other interface areas of Belfast.

 One loyalist is said to have received a gunshot wound to his own foot,
 while a number of nationalists have been hospitalised, with one man said
 to be in serious condition.

A FULL COPY OF THE REPUBLICAN NEWS AS PRINTED BY SEACHRANAIDHE1

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