Racists blamed for Co Antrim pipe bomb attack

Councillor says attack on Polish family was 'negative and sinister' as homes evacuated and access to school restricted

A pipe bomb attack in Co Antrim on Wednesday was carried out by racists targeting a Polish family, a local councillor has claimed. Grainne Teggart, the SDLP's group leader on Antrim borough council, said the attack was racially motivated and described it as "negative and sinister".

"I condemn this attack. It's totally unjustifiable and inexcusable," Teggart said. "People in the area are angry at what has happened. This is not in their name. The positive contribution Polish families and other immigrant families make to the local community is in stark contrast to the negative, sinister and despicable contribution of those responsible for this. Not only is this an attack on the family, but everyone else in Antrim."

She said residents of the Oaktree Drive area had been evacuated from their homes, and urged anybody with information about the attack to pass it to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

Following the discovery of the explosive device outside the Polish family's home at around 8am on Wednesday, a number of homes were evacuated and access to a local primary school was restricted.

Antrim town has in the past been home to a number of small racist factions linked to the now defunct Loyalist Volunteer Force as well as the Ulster Defence Association. Meanwhile, Republican dissidents are being blamed for a shooting in west Belfast in which a man in his 20s was shot in the legs. He was shot in the republican stronghold of Ballymurphy, the former home of the Sinn Féin president, Gerry Adams.

The PSNI said the shooting happened at around 9pm on Tuesday night in the Downfine Gardens area. Officers said five shots were fired during the attack, but the victim's injuries were not believed to be life threatening. It is understood the shooting was a so-called punishment attack, carried out by one of the organisations opposed to the political settlement in Northern Ireland.

Over the last year, the Real IRA and other hardline republican groups have increased the number of punishment shootings in nationalist areas across the north of Ireland.

Guardian

Dirty rotten racist

A BNP Assembly candidate is exposed as a racist who calls Muslims ‘Ragheads’ and refers to Catholics as ‘Taigs’.

And Steven Moore, who will contest both the East Antrim Assembly and council elections, also has a fascination with Hitler

The party’s Ulster Organiser is one of the first BNP candidates to finally put themselves at the mercy of the electorate.

On Wednesday the far-right party announced they would be contesting three Assembly seats and would also be targeting four council seats.

Another of the candidates is former Traditional Unionist Voice candidate Ann Cooper who caused controversy when she gave support to seven customs workers who were sacked for deliberately underpaying ethnic minorities.

She said the sacked workers deserved a medal!

Hooligans

The BNP have cranked up their efforts in Northern Ireland in the run-up to the election on May 5.

Last week before the Northern Ireland soccer match at Windsor Park, BNP activists connected to football hooligans from Leeds handed out sick anti-Muslim leaflets to fans.

The shocking leaflet carried the headline, “Our Children are not Halal Meat” and warned how Muslim paedophile gangs are “preying on vulnerable white girls”.

But we can reveal Moore is a real walking rightwing cliché!

He’s seen here posing in braces, jeans and a Fred Perry t-shirt sporting a pair of dark shades and the obligatory skinhead and tattoo.

Despite attempts from the far-right party, led by convicted racist Nick Griffin, to re-brand themselves as a friendly non-racist party they continue to be run by people like Moore.

Ulster organiser Moore is exposed here as a racist who loves Hitler videos, slagging off ethnic minorities and listening to twisted skinhead bands.

Moore may claim to have all the Protestant credentials needed to run the BNP in Northern Ireland, but he also comes with the usual embarrassment of sectarian hatreds and relaxed attitude towards rape and violence.

Moore has joked online how he had been arrested after raping a female work colleague for an April Fool’s joke and made unsavoury comments about the blind.

And Moore’s grasp of Northern Ireland isues is disturbing.

He described the pogrom against Roma families in south Belfast three years ago as an act against people who are “inherently criminal” and “Stinking Gypsy bastards”.

When Moore isn’t posting videos by white power bands such as Skrewdriver on Facebook, he reveals his fancy for all things “Third Reich” by sharing videos of Adolf Hitler with his online friends.

One apparent favourite is entitled: “Why the world cannot forget Adolf Hitler”.

He also has a penchant for songs and videos of the German Wehrmacht.

Mosque

Elsewhere, Moore has thrown his energies into trying to stop a mosque allegedly being built in Ballymena and more recently launched a campaign to terrify the people of Larne that a proposed detention centre for failed asylum seekers will turn their town into some sort of Asian ghetto.

Like most BNP members, Moore calls Muslims “ragheads” and Catholics “taigs”.

Other pointers to Moore’s opinions are revealed in some of his Facebook entries.

One starts: “Why the f**k do parents allow their daughters to run about at all hours of the night with Asians when these outrages are common knowledge? Bring back the rope.”

And another highlights his loyalist roots: “F**k the Bloody Sunday enquiry.We have always been the victims of republican genocide.”

Last night anti-Fascist campaigner Matthew Collins told the Sunday World that the people of Northern Ireland do not need the BNP.

“The BNP represent a dark age where bigotry is seen as a simple solution to complex issues,” he said while on a visit to Belfast.

“To move forward Northern Ireland has to reject racism as well as sectarianism. The BNP offers nothing on both.

“Their appointment of Steven Moore is a step into the past judging by his warped views and opinions and I don’t think the people of Ulster will be in a rush to get behind this right wing dinosaur.”

Thanks to The Sunday World and Hope not Hate