Children's Christmas Party Attacked by Republicans in Dunloy
Nationalists who attacked a Co Antrim Orange hall where children were enjoying a Christmas party on Thursday night have been condemned. Festivities at Dunloy Orange hall were interrupted shortly after 9,30pm by thugs throwing missiles and shouting sectarian obscenities.
Ballymoney DUP councillor and Orangeman lan Stevenson, who was in the hall at the time with fellow Orangemen and their children, was outraged that Christmas celebrations had been targeted.
“Between 9.30pm and 9.45pm, there was a lot of loud banging at the front of the hall," said Mr Stevenson. "There were people outside throwing some pretty hefty bricks at the hall and there were also a lot of cars sitting in the yard. Fortunately, only one of the lights at the front door was damaged. "They shouted obscenities and ran up the street, after which we called the police out. They told us there had been trouble in the centre of the village and advised us to take the A26 home instead of going as usual through the village."
The incident is the latest in a catalogue of attacks on the hall and Mr Stevenson said that few had been as distasteful as this one. "This was a Christmas party for children and I thought people would have more sense than to target something like that," he said.
"There was a period when there was too much trouble for us even to come into the village but we have been coming back now for two or three years. "The hall is attacked with paint regularly and once they attempted to set it alight." Mr Stevenson denied claims from the nationalist community that tit-for-tat attacks were taking place in Dunloy.
"It's all been one-way," he said. "We have among the most peaceful bands in the Province, They don't wave paramilitary flags and we do lots of good work for charity."
DUP North Antrim MLA Mervyn Storey said: "In terms of Dunloy, it seems that republicans are trying to eradicate any vestige of Protestantism from the village. It says everything that they won't even allow a children's Christmas party to go ahead in peace."
SDLP MLA Sean Farren said: "This stone-throwing incident has to be condemned outright by all right-thinking people and I am calling on parents and others with influence to try to prevent any repetition." News Letter 24 th December 2005
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