THE Bishop of Derry and Raphoe yesterday appealed to Catholic and Protestant neighbours to support each other, following a petrol-bomb attack on a Catholic family in the mainly Protestant Shearwater Estate in the Waterside area of Derry.
In an attack similar to that last Friday on another Catholic family in the same estate, a petrol bomh was thrown through a downstairs window of the home of Terry and May Leake at Curlew Way, which adjoins Shearwater Estate.
As Mr and Mrs Leake escaped with their four children from their burning home, assisted by their Protestant neighbours, other Protestant neighbours put out the fire.
"But for my neighbours waking us up in the early hours of the morning, I don't know what the consequences of this would have been," said Mr Leake. "It was in the early hours of the morning. The neighbours banged on the front door of the house. I went downstairs and the living room was on fire. The neighbours came in with buckets of water and put the fire out as May and I got the kids out," Mr Leake said.
"We have lived here for 16 years. Last August my father's house in the same area was petrol-bombed."
He said that those responsible for the latest attack "could have killed my children" and that "but for our neighbours, we don't know what would have happened."
One Protestant neighbour, who declined to be named, said the Leake family and other Catholic families in the square were the best neighbours one could want.
"I'm disgusted this has happened to them. Most of us have been friends and neighbours for generations."
The attack was described by Bishop James Mehaffey of the Church of Ireland in a BBC interview as "evil". "It wasn't just an arson attack, it was a murderous attack. It was an attack not just on property, but on people and on little children. That is the most detestable thing imaginable.
"I am very sorry for all the families who have suffered, but I am very encouraged by the neighbourliness shown by Protestants and Catholics together, and our only hope for this city and for Northern Ireland is that kind of neighbourliness.
"I hope and pray, despite all the difficulties, that no family will move out," the bishop said. "I hope that neighbours will show real solidarity because we're going to be divided more and more. There are people out to divide us and to destroy us and it is so important that we show solidarity across our political, religious and cultural differences.
He said that "a few incidents like this can lead to a few more, and the whole thing begins to escalate with very serious consequences.
We no longer need armchair critics or even armchair sympathisers. Everyone has a responsibility to be a good neighbour and to express that. I found it very encouraging that Protestant neighbours of the Leake family said: "We're Protestant, you're Catholic, but we're going to stand together and try to support you'; that is a sign of hope."