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Taking Advantage of Loyalist Violence?
I'm preplexed by this one. According to friends and relatives of Robert McCartney's family, republicans have picked now as the time to intensify a campaign of intimidation against the murdered man's associates. The BBC reports that McCartney's friend, Jeff Commander, had his head split open when a mob of republicans attacked him in the Short Strand. The report includes quite a graphic picture of Mr Commander's head following the attack.
Sinn Fein have denied any IRA involvement, but then again we all know how much Sinn Fein/IRA denials are worth!!
Follow up:
"They tried to murder him. They came like the Ku Klux Klan.
"They came through Clandeboye Drive when my husband and myself were walking through to go home and they attacked him. They tried to get him to the ground. He held onto the rails and I was with him. There was eight of them. One of them had a knife and if they had got him to the ground he would have come into me in a box."
Jeff Commander's wife, Sinead
But why now? Paula McCartney (Robert's sister) reckons that they're hoping loyalist violence provides the perfect opportunity to step up the intimidation while the public and media are distracted. I would have thought that if they had 2 braincells between them they'd have sat back and laughed while the loyalists destroyed any shred of credibility they and the Orange Order had in the wider world, but apparently not.