Turning a blind eye to anti-Catholic violence

Nationalists communities that have been affected by the recent loyalist riots are felling ignored by southern politicians

Earlier this month, a delegation of residents from isolated nationalist communities in North Antrim came to Dublin to meet TDs and Seanadóirí from all the political parties in Leinster House, to explain to the media the terror to which they have been exposed in recent months.

Theirs was a harrowing tale of nightly attacks on their homes during the summer, of police indifference, of intimidation, assaults, petrol bombings and being forced out of their homes.

They got almost no media coverage, and precious few TDs or Seanadóirí bothered to meet them. Those southern papers that make a fetish out of condemning violence, such as the Sunday Independent, ignored them.

What a contrast to the McCartney sisters, who have been fêted throughout the land, given private meetings with the Taoiseach in his Government office, and praised in the European Parliament.

But these North Antrim people weren't the victims of Republican-inspired or connected violence. They were just the victims of good, old-fashioned Unionist bigotry and sectarianism. The response to their visit shows that the establishment in the South just doesn't care.

Look at the record. The following is a sample of reported attacks in this area.

• In May, a minibus carrying Catholic teenagers from a football tournament in Ballymena was stoned and youths injured. The Catholic chapel in Harryville was attacked again, and cars vandalised. In Ahoghill, local Catholic residents were subjected to a night of terror and intimidation.

• In June, two young Catholics were badly beaten in a sectarian attack in Ballymena, and St Mary's Catholic chapel in Ahoghill again came under attack, as did the local Catholic primary school.

• In July, Harryville chapel was again attacked; several Catholic residents of Ahoghill were finally forced out of their homes; a Catholic bar in Ahoghill was petrol bombed; as was a pub in Broughshane; and the month ended as it began with another attack on Harryville chapel, and with the petrol bombing of churches and pubs nearby.

• In August more Catholic homes were petrol bombed in Ahoghill; a church in Cullybackey was attacked; Catholics assaulted in Ballymena; and a litany of repeated petrol bombings on homes, schools, pubs and Catholic business premises.

• In September, the campaign in Ahoghill was upped a gear: more Catholics were intimidated out of their homes by petrol bombings and stoning, and posters were put up throughout the village urging Protestants to drive the Catholics out.

Can you imagine how the politicians and the media would have dealt with all of this if the IRA had been responsible? The heavens would have been ringing with their denunciations. Instead, the airwaves were left silent: I recall only one short interview on RTÉ television, and almost nothing from the rest of the media.

What happened in Ahoghill is ethnic cleansing. A clear, determined attempt to drive the Catholics out and make Ahoghill a 100 per cent Protestant village. But it seems there's ethnic cleansing and ethnic cleansing. It's to be condemned when Serbs do it to Bosnian Muslims, but ignored when it happens to Catholics in the North.

By the way, it should be said that not all Protestants in Ahoghill were part of this. Most weren't; most were afraid to oppose it, but some followed their conscience and did.

One of the victims of the Ahoghill ethnic cleansing, Kathleen McCaughey, praised her Protestant neighbours who stood by her. "The night I was petrol bombed," she said, "my life was saved by my Protestant neighbour. But he was threatened then by the paramilitaries because he'd helped me."

And where was the police force in all of this? The PSNI, like the RUC before them, saw no evil, stood idly by, and have failed to bring anyone to justice for these crimes.

But why should they? Where is the pressure on them to do anything? The Government, the Opposition, the media – all concentrate their fire on condemning the IRA on not having decommissioned earlier. Not a whimper about North Antrim.

And that's why the delegation came to Dublin, to plead for help. What do you want politicians to do? one journalist asked Kathleen McCaughey. To stand up for us, she replied.

She was wasting her time. Not one solitary politician from the Labour Party, or Fine Gael or even from the violence-hating Progressive Democrats turned up to meet them. To their credit Fianna Fáil, the Greens, Sinn Féin and the Independents were represented.

Has anyone helped you in North Antrim, Kathleen McCaughey was asked. "Only Sinn Féin and the SDLP," she replied.

But perhaps, there's the rub. The delegation's visit was facilitated by Sinn Féin. Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin arranged their admittance to Leinster House and local councillor Philip McGuigan accompanied them. But the delegation spoke for themselves, even if only one – Kathleen McCaughey, already driven out of her house – was willing to be publicly identified.

What is the message here? Is it all right to intimidate people out of their homes if they vote for or accept support from Sinn Féin?

And the next time you hear these politicians condemn violence, just remember this callous hypocrisy.

And if you reflect on the fact that the PSNI acted just as the RUC always acted, then maybe you won't be comforted by the recent words of Labour's Joe Costello, who said of the PSNI: "We in the South have a lot to learn from the nascent PSNI, which in many ways is one of the most transparent, innovative, and accountable police services in the world."

Tell that to the Catholic people of Ahoghill.

Eoin Ó Murchú is the Eagraí Polaitíochta of RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta. He is writing here in a personal capacity