A unionist councillor has strongly condemned an attempt by loyalists to organise a boycott of Catholic businesses in the Co Antrim village of Glenarm. A leaflet circulated in the village this week from the "Glenarm Loyalist Committee" urged Protestants to boycott Catholic businesses, saying: "It is now the time for Protestant people to stand united one with another in these days when Ulster and the Union is under such an attack."
An Ulster Unionist Party councillor in the area, Mr Tom Robinson, said he would "absolutely, totally and utterly" condemn it. "I have spoken out against the boycotting of Protestant businesses, and I would equally speak out against the boycotting of Catholic businesses." Mr Robinson said he believed the people organising the boycott call were not representative of the vast majority of Protestants in the village. "I would be extremely surprised if the people of Glenarm responded to such a request. They are much too sensible to go down that road," he said.
A picturesque village on the Antrim coast, Glenarm has a mixed population. Tension increased over the summer because of the activities of a small number of loyalists. Elderly Catholics living in a small estate have been subjected to sectarian taunts, and loyalist flags are flying from lampposts in parts of the village. An SDLP councillor on the local Larne Borough Council, Mr Danny O'Connor, said a number of bed-and-breakfast businesses in Glenarm were suffering badly since last summer. Loyalist flags and the painting of kerbstones in red-white-and-blue had put tourists off, he said. Mr O'Connor said there was also rising tension in two large mixed housing estates in the predominantly Protestant town of Larne, where Catholic homes have been targeted over the summer. "My uncle has had his windows broken three times in the last six weeks, and one house was petrolbombed around the Twelfth of July. Huge loyalist flags with UVF written on them are up in the estates. It is a systematic attempt to drive Catholics out," he said.
Up to 30 per cent of the residents of the two housing executive estates, Craigy Hill and Antiville, are Catholic. Mr O'Connor, who has also had his own windows broken, said sectarian harassment "has never been as bad as this year".
A police spokesman rejected allegations that they were not doing enough to protect Catholic residents, saying it was "impossible to be everywhere all the time". He said a number of people had been arrested in connection with public order offences over the summer, and described the targeting of people's homes in the estates as "cowardly and despicable".