FIRST MINISTER Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness have together called to the McDaid family in Coleraine, Co Derry, to offer their sympathies over the sectarian murder of Kevin McDaid last Sunday.
A number of Glasgow Rangers supporters also visited the McDaid family yesterday to extend their condolences and to dissociate themselves from the loyalist mob who fatally assaulted Mr McDaid (49), critically injured Damian Fleming and injured Mr McDaid’s wife Evelyn and a pregnant woman.
Glasgow Rangers jerseys were left outside the McDaid home along with the flowers and Celtic scarves and shirts already there. The family also received letters from Glasgow Rangers supporters expressing their sympathies.
Parish priest Fr Charles Keaney said the family was grateful for the support, including the Rangers condolences, who demonstrated “that following a football team doesn’t mean you support such savagery”.
Mr McDaid’s body was due to be released back to the family late last night and waked over the weekend. His funeral Mass will take place at St John’s Church in Coleraine on Monday morning.
Mr McGuinness (Sinn Féin) said after the meeting that he and Mr Robinson (DUP) wanted to show solidarity with the McDaid family and to demonstrate their joint abhorrence of the murder and the injuries inflicted on Mr Fleming and Ms McDaid.
Mr McGuinness said he was struck by the arrogance of those who carried out Sunday’s attack in that they crossed the river Bann bridge in Coleraine and went into the nationalist area, “arrogant and brazen as if it was their town”.
“The only thing absent from Coleraine was the long white cloaks, the white hoods and the burning crucifixes,” Mr McGuinness added. “This was KKK stuff.”
Mr McGuinness said there was a major problem of sectarianism in Coleraine. He also complained of a lack of local unionist leadership in challenging the problem.
He was convinced that UDA members were implicated, adding that one eyewitness who gave statement to the PSNI was now told by police his life was under threat from loyalists.
It was claimed that a number of tricolours were displayed in the nationalist Heights area of Coleraine and that loyalists carried out the attack because of the display.
The McDaid family meanwhile says it is making a formal complaint to Police Ombudsman Al Hutchinson about how police handled the lead-up to Sunday’s attack. The PSNI chief constable has already referred the case to the ombudsman.
The McDaids say they are concerned that police were “in negotiations” with loyalists in Coleraine ahead of the attack which happened after Rangers won the Scottish Premier League from Celtic.
PSNI assistant chief constable Judith Gillespie said police were aware of the family concerns, but in light of the ombudsman’s investigations, it would be inappropriate to comment.
A loyalist bands parade in Coleraine last night was rerouted away from the Heights area. Mr McGuinness said the parade should have been postponed.
