Loyalist killing strikes new blow for North's extremists

The words "escalate" and possibly "spiral" are likely to appear in news reports from the North in the coming months, especially if the weather is good. Sectarian tensions are the norm in many parts of the North, and erupted in the savagery witnessed in The Heights estate in Coleraine after Rangers won the Scottish Premier League and innocent Catholic Kevin McDaid was killed.

There was a serious outbreak of violence in the same area last August when local Catholic youths built a huge "internment" anniversary bonfire, which was set alight a few days early by youths from the predominantly Protestant estates nearby.

The flying of flags is used by both sides as a form of provocation. Last August, the local newspaper Coleraine Chronicle ran a picture of a Union Jack-bedecked street, Somerset Drive, at the end of which -- on the edge of the predominantly Catholic Heights area -- was a large Tricolour. When the bonfire was lit by the Protestant youths, vicious fighting erupted and several people suffered serious injuries.

Low-level sectarian violence is the norm in many parts of Northern Ireland, and following McDaid's death last weekend, the tiny Protestant enclave of the Diamond on the Cityside of Derry was attacked by Catholic youths for two nights.

Only about 200 Protestants remain in the enclave, and a 30ft security fence protects them from the regular stone and petrol bomb attacks from the Catholic youths from the adjoining Bogside.

The sectarian tensions around the north-west area to a large degree derive from the effective ethnic cleansing of Protestants from the Cityside of Derry/Londonderry. In the early Seventies, about 40 per cent of the population on the Cityside was Protestant. It is now put at less than 4 per cent. Foyle College, the last "Protestant" secondary on the Cityside, is set to move to the Waterside in the next year or so, meaning only one Protestant, or "state", primary school will remain.

When the Protestant population was forced out of the Cityside of Derry, many moved to "safe" areas such as Limavady, New Buildings and Coleraine. Some brought with them the resentments at what had happened to them in Derry, and this bitterness has been exacerbated by the increasingly provocative behaviour of working-class Catholic youths, particularly over the summer when the Orange marching season takes place.

Major efforts by former terror group members on both sides of the sectarian divide have been successful in preventing serious trouble in recent years. But sources on the Catholic side say that they are concerned at the rise in dissident republican activity, and that the former Provisional IRA members who played a key role in keeping a lid on the violence on the Catholic side are less able to do so now.

The dissidents are being blamed for deliberately fomenting trouble. They know that retaliatory violence from the Protestant side will feed their cause by provoking more violence from young Catholics.

Former loyalist terror group members have been playing a very active role, so far, in minimising violence in their areas, frequently co-ordinating their actions by keeping in contact with the former "Provos" on the Catholic side. The loyalists are generally still able to control their areas, but this failed last weekend when they were taken by surprise by the apparently spontaneous decision of a mob to invade the Catholic Heights area.

The big concern remains in Belfast. If sectarian vio-

lence were to break out in a meaningful way, particularly in the north of the city, this could affect the great advances that have been made in cross-community relations in the period since the ceasefires of 1994 and 1997.

This, in turn, could lead to the advancement of the dissident republicans' cause and bring large numbers on to the streets. More injuries, and even deaths, could create the "spiral" situation that was experienced in the early days of the Troubles. One of the key incidents in the outset of the Troubles in 1969 was the sectarian murder of a Protestant man, Billy King, who was kicked to death by Catholic rioters outside his home in the Fountain area of Derry.

Billy King, who was killed in September 1969, and Kevin McDaid, who was kicked to death last Sunday, were both aged 49 and both the fathers of four children. Neither was involved in any form of militancy and both were killed merely because of their religious backgrounds.

The killing of Billy King and several other Protestants by Catholics prompted the retaliatory violence by Protestants, who invaded Catholic areas of Belfast, leading to the British government's decision to call in the British army as the then under-strength Royal Ulster Constabulary was on the verge of collapse.