Real IRA threatens revenge attacks on loyalists

Dissident republicans have warned that attacks on Catholic homes and businesses in north Antrim have not gone unnoticed and may…

Dissident republicans have warned that attacks on Catholic homes and businesses in north Antrim have not gone unnoticed and may result in reprisals should they continue.

The situation in north Antrim has not gone unnoticed. Although we are reluctant to go down that road, we are not ruling out that there will be action taken
A spokesperson for the Real IRA

In a statement to Daily Irelanda spokesperson for the Real IRA said that the organisation has not ruled out revenge attacks.

"The situation in north Antrim has not gone unnoticed. Although we are reluctant to go down that road, we are not ruling out that there will be action taken," the statement read.

"If nobody else is going to stand up, we will. This is not going to be a sectarian campaign. It will be directed against members of loyalist groups we can identify as being involved in the campaign against nationalists."

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Sinn Féin said today that the increase in attacks is a direct result of internal loyalist feuding.

Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuinness said the actions were typical of a loyalist reaction to problems within their own organisations.

"The increasing number of attacks on nationalists in north Antrim and in north and east Belfast are the result of orchestrated sectarian violence on the part of unionist paramilitaries.

"Invariably the response of loyalism to internal instability and internecine violence is to escalate attacks on nationalists and Catholics," added Mr McGuinness.

"This is what is happening at present. The response to this orchestrated and escalating campaign on the part of unionist leaders has been subdued and indicates a level of tolerance which is in sharp contrast to their vocal and obsessive focus on the IRA.

Mr McGuinness also said that the PSNI response to the attacks was inadequate and reiterated his party's stance on the need for change in the force.

"Even more disgraceful have been the attempts by the PSNI to downplay this violence by suggesting that it is neither orchestrated nor wholly sectarian in nature.

"Nowhere is the need for fundamental change more obvious than in the PSNI's attempts to disguise the naked sectarianism which fuels these attacks."