Has Antrim Borough become a hotbed of paramilitary terror?
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Brian Graham: ‘those intent on wreaking havoc will have to contend with the strength of the community’.
WITH two terrorist attacks within the space of a week in the Antrim area following hot on the heels of the brutal murders of two soldiers at Massereene Army Barracks last year, there are fears that the Borough is becoming one of the breeding grounds for paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland.
However, this reputation does not reflect the true nature of the town and surrounding borough, according to the Chairman of the Antrim Community Safety Partnership (ACSP), who says the overwhelming majority of local residents reject the activity of terror gangs from both sides of the political divide.
Last week's pipe bomb attack on Stiles Community Centre, where a local GAA team were practising, was seen as a 'tit-for-tat' response to the recent dissident republican car bombing in Randalstown, which left Catholic PSNI officer Peader Heffron fighting for his life, and having a leg amputated.
The incidents follow on from the 2009 attacks at Massereene carried out by the Real IRA when soldiers, Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey, were gunned down and killed in the attack, while four others were seriously injured. That incident shook the peace process to its very foundations, and saw Antrim featured heavily in news reports across the globe as the scene of a resurgent terror campaign.
Last autumn also saw two pipe bomb attacks in the Folly and Brantwood areas, both believed to have been carried out by renegade loyalists targeting GAA members. The most recent assault on Stiles Community Centre is being linked with these earlier pipe bombing attempts, leaving Antrim fearful that further incidents are likely.
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