Sinn Féin has condemned a weekend gang attack over a soccer poster in Co Antrim and has called on community figures to help end sectarian attacks in the mainly unionist town of Carrickfergus.
Sinn Féin's East Antrim councillor Mr Oliver McMullan
A loyalist mob battered a Catholic man after a row over a Celtic poster erupted into sectarian violence on Saturday evening. Mr Christopher McGill (23) was chased into his house and caught by at least eight men who broke his two cheekbones and nose before throwing him through a window.
Two children, aged one and two, were sleeping in an upstairs bedroom at the time.
The gang also assaulted a second man (20) and threatened two women before they fled.
They also entered a second home, causing damage and terrorising its occupants. Both homes have been boarded up and the nine people who lived in the houses have now fled.
Mr McGill's, mother, Linda, said the gang threatened to burn her family alive. "They told my daughter they were going to burn her or roast her."
The trouble flared when the victim got involved in a fight on Saturday night with a man who confronted him outside an off-licence in the town. "It was to do with a bottle thrown at our house because there's a Celtic poster on the wall," said Mrs McGill.
Sinn Féin's East Antrim councillor Mr Oliver McMullan today said the attack was the latest in a string of sectarian attacks on nationalists living in Carrickfergus and called on unionist leaders to act.
"Unionists political leaders and church, community and civic leaders must work together to stamp out the evil of sectarianism that is festering within their community. This campaign of sectarian intimidation must come to an end," Mr McMullan said.
Additional reporting PA