Loyalist paramilitary attacks on nationalists in north Antrim, which have been ongoing since last April, are being co-ordinated to distract loyalist supporters from the feud amongst the paramilitaries, Sinn Féin has claimed.
A number of north Antrim nationalists, including Kathleen McCaughey who quit her home in Ahoghill in July after an arson attack, yesterday travelled to Leinster House for meetings with TDs.
Questioned before the meetings, Ms McCaughey (51) urged politicians in the Republic to learn about the attacks: "I would like them to speak up for the nationalists in the north of Antrim."
Unionist politicians, including the Democratic Unionist Party's Dr Ian Paisley, had done nothing to stop the attacks, she said. "The only support that [ we] got is from Sinn Féin and the SDLP.
"My Protestant neighbours were more than good. Ninety-eight per cent of them didn't want me to go. A Protestant neighbour saved my life at the time of the petrol bomb," Ms McCaughey told journalists.
However, she claimed that her rescuer had since been "intimidated out of the village, along with two of his brothers" since his Good Samaritan rescue, while other relations of his have had their windows broken.
Sinn Féin North Antrim Assembly member Philip McGuigan tied the attacks directly to the ongoing loyalist feud that claimed the life of former UDA commander Jim Gray late on Tuesday.
"Traditionally when loyalist feuds are taking place loyalist paramilitaries also attack nationalists in some way to reassure their own community. The attacks are almost certainly orchestrated and co-ordinated," he said.
Urging the Government to put more pressure on unionist politicians to use their influence to bring the violence to an end, the 32-year old Dunloy-based politician said the Government is "a co-signatory of the Good Friday agreement. This was an agreement that was supposed to provide a future where we could all live free of sectarian harassment. The Irish Government in particular has a huge onus to use any influence that they have.
"The lack of visibility by southern politicians has been well noticed, excluding a few.
"People do feel let down. As people living in north Antrim we are Irish citizens and we expect to be treated in the same manner as people living in Dublin, Cork or anywhere else."