Nationalists seek a review of the loyalist ceasefire

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Dr John Reid is facing renewed calls to review the status of the loyalist ceasefire.

A spate of murders, pipe bombings and an incendiary bomb attempt in Ballycastle, either claimed by the Red Hand Defenders or attributed to loyalist paramilitary attacks, have reinforced calls for a review of the loyalist ceasefire.

SDLP assembly member for North Antrim Dr Sean Farren said “The Government must now take cognisance of the events taking place in areas all over the north, where the UDA/UFF ceasefire seems to be in existence in name only. In my area there are so many attacks taking place that there clearly is no ceasefire. The Government must take those behind the attacks to task.

“The organisations which they claim to be a part of must be taken to task. They cannot be allowed to threaten, attack, intimidate, and bomb people without their actions having any consequences.”

The latest pipe bomb attack claimed by the Red Hand Defenders was carried out on a Catholic home in the Loughside area of Ballynahinch in County Down.

The device left on the windowsill of the living room exploded at 3.00am on Wednesday morning while a couple and their four young children were asleep upstairs.

RUC Inspector Paul McClean said that the family were lucky escape as they could have been killed or seriously injured in the “absolutely reckless” attack.

Meanwhile, UDP chairman John White claimed that the UDA was not responsible for bombs left in Ballycastle.

Two pipe bombs were defused in the town on Wednesday and bomb disposal experts dealt with an incendiary car bomb during the Auld Lammas Fair held in Ballycastle on Tuesday. (SP)