Living through 'psychological torture'

SDLP councillor Pat Ramsey has endured 12 attacks on his home, writes Susan McKay. But his wife says they'll never give in to them

Before she goes to bed at night, Chris Ramsey has a routine. She checks the front garden and the backyard, and then, all being well, she triple-locks the front and back doors and makes sure all the windows are closed. One recent Tuesday, all was not well.

"I saw this thing lying in the front garden and I knew immediately what it was. It was an explosive device. I'm sick looking at them. I came in and rang the police."

It is a routine with which the Ramsey family is all too familiar. Chris's husband is the SDLP MLA, Pat Ramsey. The family home in Derry has been attacked 12 times since 2002.

Pat was away on a research trip to Vienna and Chris was alone in their Bogside home with their daughter, Áine (five). "I never ring 999 because that way they'd send in the jeeps," she says. "I rang the local station and they came round and looked at it. This was about 10.30pm. They decided not to touch it, and they sent for the bomb disposal people. The robot did the rest. It was a hoax but it was about a quarter to two by the time it was cleared. I sat up watching the TV then for the rest of the night. Áine came down in the morning and she asked me why I hadn't gone to bed. I said I had, but she knew I hadn't. She said, 'The bad men were here again weren't they?'"

On some previous occasions, the PSNI has evacuated the area around the Ramseys' house, resulting in considerable disruption. However, this time they simply advised neighbours to sleep in rooms at the back of their houses. The following day, Sinn Féin issued a statement accusing the police of trying to maximise the disruption caused by the hoax "by removing families from their homes".

The party claimed a local republican had removed the device and, after examining it, told locals they didn't need to leave their homes. Despite this, according to Sinn Féin councillor Peter Anderson, the PSNI, including a "riot squad", kept "a heavy presence" in the area. "I believe this was an attempt to inflame the situation and goad the local youths into some sort of confrontation," he said.

Chris Ramsey angrily disagrees with this account. "In the middle of all this, a local republican came charging in. He kicked the device and lifted it and said, 'look, it's a hoax'. It was a very dangerous thing to do. He put our lives at risk more than the police ever will, and he also contaminated the evidence."

Sinn Féin described the planting of the hoax bomb as "unacceptable" and said those responsible should "desist from these actions immediately".

Attacks on SDLP representatives in Derry and Strabane have largely been attributed to dissident republicans. Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, who also lives in the Bogside, has spoken out against them. However, the Ramseys feel Sinn Féin could do more to try to bring an end to the intimidation.

"These attacks started in 2002 after clashes in the council chamber," says Pat, who is leader of the SDLP group of councillors and a former Derry mayor. "One of the Sinn Féin councillors called the SDLP councillors - who were in favour of joining the local district policing partnership - collaborators. The debate got out of hand and it did inflame things. Another time there was a device at our house and when police were evacuating the area you had local republicans round spouting about MI5 and undercover operations."

He says Sinn Féin has refused to condemn attacks on the PSNI. "At the best of times, bringing the police in here brings the risk of stone-throwing and the risk that someone will get hurt. You are also afraid maybe someone is trying to lure the police in for a more serious sort of attack. Some of the young people now think it's all right to attack the emergency services, too. In all likelihood I have helped the families of some of these young people that are attacking us, whether on social security or housing or whatever. We don't know who is putting them up to it, but whoever it is, the bomb disposal people have told us they know how to make bombs."

Pat says he feels guilty about the effects of these incidents on his family and on his neighbours, some of whom are elderly and frail. "I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to Chris and Áine," he says. "But having said that, something has happened. Chris has been badly traumatised, and we don't want Áine growing up with this sort of thing in her life. Our older children got harassed and our son got punched because of my politics. Someone scraped 'IRA' on the side of our car. But it is only Áine who has had this. During one attack, a petrol bomb hit the window ledge of her bedroom."

The family home is in the heart of the Bogside, up the road from "Free Derry" corner, and Pat is from the area. Chris is from the Creggan, just a bit further up the hill. "Yes, we have talked about moving, but where would we go?" says Pat. "Creggan? Shantallow? Would we be attacked there, too? We have lived here for 26 years. We've very good neighbours here. This is a good area. As a matter of fact we've had an incredible level of support from right across the community. A DUP councillor even told me he had people in asking him to tell us they were sorry about what happened. There have been messages from people in the Fountain." (The Fountain estate is a small and beleaguered Protestant enclave on Derry's city side.)

SDLP leader Mark Durkan called the attacks an "ugly campaign" which amounted to "psychological torture" for the family.

"We rely more and more on our faith. Sometimes we say a Rosary in the house to give us inner strength," says Pat.

The assembly at Stormont has been suspended for nearly four years. It must be hard at times to continue believing in politics. "It has crossed my mind to leave it. I've been in it for 20 years. Before that I was a youth worker here in the city. I still feel I have a role to play to make this a better society, and politics is addictive, too. You do get drained, though. I don't see myself as heroic. There is a terrible struggle mentally."

But Chris says, "Pat is in politics and I am behind him 100 per cent . . . I'll never leave this house. I'll never give in to them."