A west Belfast church congregation yesterday applauded their 71-year-old priest, who was beaten up when he answered the door to a young man seeking confession on Thursday night.
The man, aged about 19 or 20, called to Father Aidan Denny's house beside the Church of the Annunciation on Thursday. Shortly after he was admitted the man started punching the priest, badly bruising him about the face. He escaped in the priest's car.
At the time Father Denny said he had no option but to let the man into his home because he wanted confession. Parishioners were shocked by the nature of the assault. They described Father Denny as a "quiet inoffensive man, who would help anybody". They gave him a warm ovation when he concelebrated Mass with the Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Patrick Walsh.
Meanwhile, the Police Service of Northern Ireland is treating as attempted murder a gun attack at a Travelling community site in west Belfast on Saturday night. A number of men travelling in cars towing caravans attacked the house at Glen Road Heights.
A shotgun blast was fired into the house and another shot discharged into the air as a mother and five of her children hid, according to the PSNI. The family were not hit in the gunfire, although the children's grandmother was injured when struck on the hand by a garden tool thrown into the house.
The men also damaged two cars and a caravan at the site. A fleet of cars, one with Southern registration plates and another with a broken rear window, then left the area towing caravans.
PSNI acting superintendent Mr Peter Farrar described the attack as attempted murder and appealed for assistance on both sides of the Border to find those responsible.
The Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast, Mr Alex Maskey, said it was fortunate nobody was killed. "Any right-thinking person would want nothing to do with something like this and it is just fortunate that there were not more serious injuries."
Around 5.30 p.m. on Saturday evening a 19-year-old man was badly beaten in a suspected "punishment" attack in west Belfast. The man is being treated in hospital for a broken elbow, broken hand and cuts to his head after four men assaulted him off Lenadoon Avenue, police said.