DISSIDENT REPUBLICANS are coming into direct confrontation with community workers in nationalist areas of Belfast.
They have refused to lift a death threat against west Belfast community activist Seamus Finucane, a former IRA prisoner and a brother of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane.
Community workers gathered together in west Belfast this week to resist the threat from the group calling itself Óglaigh na hÉireann. They insisted they would not be intimidated by the threats which are against anyone who passed on information to the PSNI that would lead to the arrest of an Óglaigh na hÉireann member.
The threat has created something of a community power struggle within nationalist areas of Belfast between the dissidents and republicans who support the PSNI and are signed up to the new political dispensation. Community activists were angered that Óglaigh na hÉireann felt emboldened to issue a threat against Mr Finucane – a former senior IRA figure who carries out community work in the Upper Springfield area of west Belfast – and to other community workers.
On February 17th, the PSNI warned him there was a serious threat to his life. Efforts by community workers to have that and other threats lifted have failed. Óglaigh na hÉireann warned that “acts of treachery” would not be tolerated and that the threat applied to anyone who co-operated with the police “regardless of their previous background”.
Gerry McConville, director of the Falls Community Council, said yesterday while the threat was still in force it would not deflect local community activists from their work. He said over 90 community groups and individuals had supported a statement rejecting the “unacceptable blanket threat against community workers” and demanding it be lifted.
“They have badly misjudged the people of west Belfast if they think they can intimidate us,” he said.
