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POLICE IN NORTHERN Ireland have appealed for calm following reports that threats have been made to pupils at three schools in Belfast.
The PSNI said its officers are aware of a threat made in relation to a number of schools in the north of the city.
“The threat was made through a third party on Friday, 6 September,” they said in a statement. “Investigations into the threat are ongoing. At this stage, there is no evidence to corroborate the threat.
Police are committed to protecting all communities in north Belfast and we would encourage all community leaders and those in positions of influence to play an active role in diffusing tension and maintaining calm.
The Irish News reported this morning that a man claiming to represent loyalist paramilitary group, the Red Hand Defenders, issued the threat of “military action” against the schools using a known codeword.
According to the newspaper, the group said it reactivated in response to “attacks on the Protestant, unionist and loyalist community in recent months”.
“Parents, pupils and staff who go to those schools are no longer welcome at the three schools,” his statement read. “Those three schools are in Protestant, unionist and loyalist areas, therefore [anything] to do with those schools will now be considered as legitimate targets.
“If the message is not taken on board by the community then trouble will commence on Monday morning and military action will also commence on Monday morning.”
The RHD has not been active for many years but during the late 1990s and 2000s, it claimed responsibility for the murder of human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson and postal worker Daniel McColgan, among others.
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I sincerely hope that those cowardly bastards who threaten innocent schoolchildren and their parents are caught before they can do any damage.
Worrying escalation of lawlessness regarding dissident groups in N.Ireland the past few years.. Wonder what’s being done by governments?
Whatever about dissidents, mainstream Unionism has been pandering to hardline elements in the past couple of years, much of the blame has to fall at the door of the DUP leadership.
The fact is that loyalist hegemony is never coming back, something these Neanderthals need to accept and their political leaders need to make clear.
SFA.
What big brave men they are. Claiming that innocent children going to school are legitimate targets is truly shocking. How could anybody support this type of thinking?
Don’t the Taliban attack children going to school?
Here we go again. I read with interest and dismay, the posts on here during the riot season. Posters from the south lumping all northerners in one basket. I recall one poster “wishing that the north was just let float off into the sea”
Yet in the past week when one of the worlds greatest poets, passed away, He was claimed as “Irish”. Irish he was but also born and bred in the north, he was one of those so called people from the north. (On a more minor note how many we’re cheering for James mc clean from Derry playing for Ireland last night)
I was born and live in the north, but feel 100% Irish, I look towards the south, belfast means little to me, I play GAA, work in the south and north, consume more southern media than northern.
People from the south need to stop lumping all northerners into one category, and show more understanding for the hundreds of thousands of people who want to live peacefully as either Irish or indeed British citizens.
Well you are 100% irish if that’s what you feel. It is easy for us down here to forget the real difficulties faced by northerners of all leanings. Still, empty vessels make the most noise, and you can’t be surprised that people are put off by the vitriol that the most vocal proponents of both sides spout. A nasty minority make it hard to remain sympathetic.
Hear hear. People from Timbuktu have a better understanding of the North than a lot of mouth pieces from the south ever will. If I had a euro for every time I heard or read that “we should blow it out to sea” tripe, I’d be rich.
Try harder….
Thanks Stephen……I have been saying that on many sights for years. I had a good giggle to myself, in between crying, at the mountains of praise lavished on Seamus Heaney……”truly a great Irishman”…..”a huge loss for Ireland”…..”Irelands son of letters”……..”Ireland will be the poorer for his passing”……all those statements are true……..even though he was a ‘northerner’……hypocrits.
A great way to receive recognition for ‘cultural’ practices
Big men these so called red hand defenders, threatening children. Their time is over, but they say their civil rights are being taken from them!! It’s called equality, something Nationalists were denied for decades.
Loyalists at work. Despicable people. Why doesn’t their queen come out and condemn this latest show loyalty? Also, Rosemary Nelson was murdered by the same people who murdered Pat Finucane and who bombed Dublin and Monaghan.
Depressing, disturbing news. Hopefully the people who issued the threat will be caught before any action is carried out and the full rigour of the law will be used to bring them to justice.
Typical loyal cowards.picking on kids again, sure I suppose it’s their culture
They are entirely doing what British policy in the North of Ireland have set them up and armed them to do for centuries, that is to instil fear and murder the native Irish. Why is everyone so surprised.?..this is normal behaviour for British policy makers in Ireland, it didn’t end with the “Black and Tans” you know!’.
The poor parents in that area must be frantic :(
Jane they’ve already had the Holy Cross hatred and now this craic. This is north Belfast, the most contentious part of the wee 6 probably. North Belfast is the place where it’s all happening now. Loyalists in Belfast are on the back foot for the first time since partition, they don’t know where to look.. they actually threaten schoolkids! that’s all anyone needs to know.
Are they related to the Red Hand Commando the three requirements for membership of which, according to a British Army Intelligence Report, were :
1 Be a Protestant
2 Have a gun
3 Be a homosexual.
Do you not mean ‘homophobic’?
No I do not. It was part of an Appreciation of the Situation which assesed all the paramilitary groups in the North.
I will never forget the wording of the way they dismissed the Red Hand Commando.
And here is a reason to cause IRA to come back and it all to start again.
i think you mean
3 be a savage?
nothing wrong with homosexuals.
Why have they not intergrated all these schools by now?even in schools where either side have majority there should have cross over studies.The g.f.a seems to be unravelling up there,Mr Haas is a big job on his hand..
It was only a matter of time before the so called loyalist ‘defenders’ started to flex their muscles. I’ve said it before that the troubles are not over……there will be one last uprising before the war is put to an end once and for all.
Loyalist have preserved grievances. They have no foundation what’s so ever. They simply will not except that their dynesty has come to an end. They have been badly let down by their elected politicians who care more about power and less about their electorate.
I believe it will be a one sided fight though. Neither group (loyalist/Disadents) have the arms or the foot soldiers needed for a full blown battle. It will be as we see here, them attacking us by way of innocent bystanders,fear will do the rest.
The PSNI are on their knees due to loyalist marches and protests (orange order protest every night at the Ardoyne since they were not permitted to march there). The cost this year for policing has come to £28m……that’s right £28M!
A rumoured change of leadership in the DUP will do little to quell nerves…..no one will let it get to where it was before…..providing the Brits don’t start putting their big foot in it again……remember what internment, Bloody Sunday, tens of thousands of troops on the ground did for any chances of peace
Watch this space…..
£28 million so far. What do they care. The English taxpayer pays for it.
Jean the so called Unionists would love the British army on the streets again. That mistake will never happen again.
What a shower of dirty rotten tramps, threatening school kids, such tough men them loyalists. Let them come down here sometime and we will show them what tough really is!
Lovely people up they’re
Their lovely people up they’re – there just misunderstood. They need a hug and a their they’re there.
I forgot this was an English test
How did I do in that sentence?
You forgot the full stop.
You’re making no sense whatsoever.
The police should not be calling for calm they should be rounding up these bigots and taking them off the street…..
Is this another advertisement from the ‘Northern Ireland Tourist board’.
The north is a lawless society and that ain’t gonna change.
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