Post by Ayres on Sept 21, 2005 17:59:34 GMT -5
LOUISE O'PREY was forced from her home on September 12 by Loyalist mob shouting,
"Kill the taigs", and was forced to take refuge in a nationalist neighbour's
home in the middle of the night. Her house where she had lived for the past
year and a half is near the route taken by the Whiterock Orange parade in Belfast
on September 10. "I just had to get out last night. There was a mob of about
200-300 attacking this woman Sarah's house. They were attacking the house and
dancing on her car and stuff like that. They were waving swords and machetes
and shouting 'Kill the Taigs'".
Not far from where she lives is the Loyalist West Circular Road. It is only
a short distance from the scene of the worst of the Loyalist rioting on September
10,11 and 12, when the RUC\PSNI and the British army came under automatic gunfire
and sustained attack from petrol and blast bombs. More than 50 civilians and
British Colonial police were treated for injuries, including 22-month old Caleb
Moore, who suffered a fractured skull after he was hit by a rock thrown at his
father's car.
As Louise O'Prey began to search for somewhere else to live, she was wary that
those who live nearby could point her out to the Loyalist mob that has rampaged
through the area. "This has been going on since Wednesday (September 7) of last
week. There was never anything before that." She says she spent some time on
the floor of her room, trying to ensure her doors and windows were secure, fearful
the youths outside would come for her. "I rang the police at nine o'clock and
I told them I was under attack. Nothing happened and I phoned again after 10
minutes. This policeman I was talking to-he was really rude-said: 'I don't understand
why you're ringing'. And I shouted back at him: 'look, there's people coming
up the lane towards me here and they've got swords."
As the disturbances continued into the night, she says, she went out to the
police who were wearing full riot gear confronting the rioters on the street.
"I wanted to tell them what was going on earlier at my house but they just turned
their shields on me, pushing me back and said they were doing all they could."
She said she feared that one of the Protestants nearby is telling Loyalists
where she and other nationalists live. "I'm afraid to walk past this neighbour's
house now for fear she'll tell somebody who I am and where I'm going."